The tribunal heard that payments that ultimately ended up with Mr Ray Burke were recorded as "planning permission" and "land enhancements" in the books of companies owned by the Murphy group.
The financial director of JMSE, Mr Roger Copsey, said he could not explain why £30,000 given to Mr Burke was recorded in company documents as "enhancements" to the north Dublin lands in one document, and for "planning permission" in another.
Mr Copsey was responding to questions by Mr Des O'Neill SC, for the tribunal, about the manner in which two transactions, for £20,000 and £10,000, were treated in the books of Murphy-owned companies, the accounts of AIB in Talbot Street, and the company solicitor's papers.
He said there was no explanation "whatsoever" why a political donation to a politician would find itself in the accounts as an "enhancement" to the value of the lands.
Mr Copsey was referring to a document recording the expenses and receipts of Grafton Construction, one of the Murphy land-owning companies in North Co Dublin.
In it are two entries, one for £65,272, referring to an acquisition of additional lands in Poppintree, and other associated costs, and the other for £30,000, described as "enhancement expenditure".
Further questioning of Mr Copsey revealed that land enhancement would normally refer to a service, such as an architect's report or a survey, that would enhance the value of the land.
"In that column you would expect that the money that was paid over, that ultimately ended up in the hands of Mr Ray Burke, would be recorded?" asked Mr O'Neill.
"If I had been recording it I would have recorded it as a `political donation'," Mr Copsey replied.
In a separate item, a cash balance document dealing with Grafton and another land-owning Murphy company, Reliable Construction, the same payment of £30,000 is recorded under the heading of planning permission.
Mr Copsey could not say why the accounting clerk in JMSE recorded the £30,000 ultimately paid to Mr Burke as "payment for planning permission". He said the entry was made Mr Tim O'Keefe, an accounting clerk working in JMSE for Copsey Murray and Co, but he would have had "no knowledge of the political donation".
"All I can say quite positively is that I did not tell him it was planning," Mr Copsey said. "There is no way I could have told him it was planning permission because as far as I knew it was not planning permission. I had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of its purpose other than it was a political donation." Although Mr Copsey admitted he would have seen the document before, he said he would have checked it only to see what funds were available in the company.
"Had I checked this document, I would have corrected the document," he said.
"There can be no doubt that the £30,000 there is the £30,000 which was the political donation, because this is an account of the Reliable and Grafton balance," he added.