KUALA LUMPUR (July 31): The National Audit Department will reopen the investigation into 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) if instructed to do so by the government.
 
“On 1MDB, we’ll wait for the instruction from the government,” Auditor-General Tan Sri Madinah Mohamad said. “As and when there is an instruction, then the National Audit Department would act on the instruction.”
 
Speaking to reporters at the Parliament building, Madinah said the department found there is room for improvement by ministries and government offices in terms of establishing proper guidelines for programme implementations.
 
“They should also tighten up their supervisory (roles) and monitoring over those programmes,” she said in reference to the Auditor-General’s Report 2016 (Series 1) tabled in Parliament this morning.
 
However, Madinah expressed satisfaction with performances of the ministries and departments, as they met with larger purposes and objectives.
 
Meanwhile, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Datuk Hasan Ariffin reiterated there is no need to reopen investigations into the 1MDB scandal, despite the revelations made by US Department of Justice (DoJ) in its 1MDB-linked lawsuits.
 
“The PAC has tabled its report in the Parliament, (so) the report is completed,” Hasan told reporters. “It is up to the government to take action based on our report.”
 
“We would not be investigating 1MDB, following the US DOJ’s suits. PAC has nothing to do with that. DOJ is DOJ, PAC is PAC,” he added.
  
On possible conflict of interest if the government were to probe 1MDB, which is owned by the government, Hasan said the inquiry would be based on the laws and protocols between US and Malaysia.
 
The latest A-G’s Report showed the federal government’s revenue dipped 3% to RM212.4 billion in 2016, compared with RM219.1 billion in 2015, due to reductions in petroleum income tax (RM3.1 billion, down 27%), petroleum royalties (RM1.5 billion, down 29%) and investment interest and earnings (RM11.4 billion, down 35%).
 
The government’s debt fell to 52.75% in 2016, from 54.5% in 2015, the report said.
 
Hasan noted management expenditure slipped 3.1% to RM210.2 billion in 2016 and development expenditure rose 3% to RM41.9 billion, as opposed to RM216.9 billion and RM40.8 billion respectively a year ago.
 
Hasan said 46 ministries, departments and federal statutory bodies were given 'certificates without warnings'.
 
“We have not been able to look through the report yet, but we expect to decide which ministry or department would be called for further investigation by the end of the week,” he said.
 
Of the review, he said 84 quality audits were conducted on 25 federal agencies and five federal statutory bodies, as well as on 54 state governments, its agencies and statutory bodies, local governments and Islamic religious councils.
 
“The Auditor-General’s Department also conducted 21 company audits on two federal agencies, five federal statutory bodies and 14 state bodies,” Hasan said.
 
(An earlier version of this report had wrongly quoted the AG as saying that 1MDB’s accounts will be reviewed if there’s instruction.)