No basis to audit 1MDB again, PAC chief says
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) may not look into debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) because its books have already been audited by an international auditing firm.
PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed last night said the PAC would need a basis to look into the business of 1MDB.
For that, it would have to refer to the Auditor-General's report on the strategic development fund, he said.
"The Auditor-General (A-G) can send a team to any government department to investigate and highlight issues in the department.
"In 1MDB's case, a reputable international auditing firm has done that and cleared it. So what are we going to produce as a basis to call up 1MDB and do our investigation?" he said at a forum titled "Auditor-General's Report: Government Audit-Formality or Accountability?" at Wawasan Open University in Penang last night.
The Barisan Nasional lawmaker said the international firm had auditors more skilled and competent than the National Audit Department's staff to look into the accounts of 1MDB, which involved money kept overseas.
He said the A-G had recently spoken about this, asking what additional value his department could offer when the international firm had audited and certified 1MDB's accounts.
"Forget about the change of auditors and CEOs (chief executive officers), and the figures (Petaling Jaya Utara MP) Tony Pua and (Pandan MP) Rafizi Ramli put out because those numbers were also not correct in many cases.
"But they have done enough to give people the perception that something is very wrong with 1MDB," he said.
"The name of Mr Low Taek Jho has been bandied about but is he a director or a shareholder in the company? Is he involved in any part of the company? He is not. So how are we going to call him, just because people claim that he is involved?
"What locus standi do we have? That is another problem, which is why we need the audit department to conduct an investigation," he said, adding however that he did not know many of the details regarding the federal government-owned strategic development company as he had not yet read the A-G's report.
Nur Jazlan, who is Pulai MP, was asked by a member of the audience at the event organised by state think tank Penang Institute if the PAC would look into 1MDB, which critics have said might affect the confidence of investors in Malaysia.
It was reported that 1MDB had come under fire from opposition politicians as well as former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad over the fund's heavy debts, its use of money and its opaque operations.
There were massive concerns over the firm's burgeoning debts estimated at some RM40 billion, just five years into its operations, amid the softening of the ringgit against the US dollar.
Jazlan said there were legal and government structures in place, and for the PAC to do its work, it had to follow the due process to make its findings valuable enough to get the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to probe and, subsequently, for the A-G's Department to take action. – January 24, 2015.
