The Permanent Secretary for Finance, John Prasad yesterday clarified in the Suva High Court that he did not have the power to approve any tenders application.

Prasad took to the witness box yesterday in relation to the case where FICAC had charged two Chinese businessmen - Chen Xue Liang and De Chuan Zhao of China Huashi Enterprise Fiji Limited with one charge of allegedly bribing a public officer in July 2009.

It is alleged that the two approached Prasad on the 28th of July of last year and tried to bribe him with $6,000 and gifts so that they could win a tender for a water project in Savusavu.

Prasad told the Suva High Court that it was the standard that whenever a tender application was submitted, it would go through the Tender Committee and then to the Works Tender Committee since it was a PWD tender, and then the Ministry of Finance would receive the application to see whether the application was within the budget for Government.

Prasad stressed that his role as the Permanent Secretary for Finance was to establish Government's annual budget and had nothing to do with tender application approval.

During cross examination by the lawyer for the accused, Gavin O'Driscoll, Prasad revealed that the final decision lay with the Line Minister and all he did was give his recommendation.

O'Driscoll then asked Prasad why he had met with the two and whether he had known them prior to meeting, to which Prasad replied that he had never met the two and it was only when he had met with the two accused, did he find out that they had the intention of meeting with the Prime Minister.
 
O'Driscoll then raised the question as to why Prasad had accepted a bag of tea and money from the two accused, to which Prasad replied that he had followed procedure set down by PSC where he wrote down what he had received and added that since the meeting between him and the accused took place late in the afternoon, he informed he kept the money and the tea and reported the matter the very next morning.

However when asked by O'Driscoll to clarify why the meeting was late and why he had raised the issue late, to which Prasad replied that he had finished meeting the accused at around 5.30pm and had other meetings lined up and when everything was over at around 7.30pm on June 27th of last year, he called the Prime Minister and the Attorney General informing them of what had happened.

Prasad told the court that the two than allegedly gave him a bag containing Chinese tea. He said after the meeting, while he was walking the two to the exit, Zhao allegedly gave him an envelope containing money.

The next witness to take the stand was the personal assistant to the Minister for Finance and the Prime Minister, Raijeli Chand who was called to the office the next day to count the money in the envelope.

Chand confirmed that the money amounted to $6,000 and all the money was in $100 bills.

The case has been adjourned until this morning where spokesperson for the Ministry of Works and Public Utilities Sainiana Waqainabete is expected to take the witness stand.

The High Court had earlier yesterday heard that the two had approached Waqanaibete and she referred the matter up to Prasad.

The case resume today at 10am.