KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 25): Auditor-General Tan Sri Dr Madinah Mohamad has confirmed that the original audit report on 1MDB has been altered, and that orders to do first came from former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

She issued a statement confirming this with a full chronology of the tamperings that took place prior to the audit report being presented to the Public Accounts Committee on March 4, 2016, beginning with a meeting with Najib on Feb 22 that same year.

On Feb 20, former chief private secretary to Najib, Tan Sri Shukry Salleh, requested the 1MDB Audit Team to submit the final audit report on 1MDB for discussion with the ex-PM. In the meeting with Najib that took place two days later, in the presence of former chief secretary to the government Tan Sri Ali Hamsa, former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang, and Shukry, Najib ordered the removal of paragraphs stating that there were two versions of 1MDB Financial Statements for the year ending 2014, and that investigations by enforcement authorities be conducted on the fund.

Because of that, presentation of the audit report to the Public Accounts Committee -- which was originally scheduled for Feb 24 -- was delayed to March 4 and 7.

On Feb 23, in a meeting with Ali Hamsa, Shukry and Ambrin Buang, the 1MDB Audit Team was informed that the government had categorised the report as a "crisis". 

A day later, former 1MDB president and CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy joined a meeting with Ali Hamsa and Ambrin that was attended by a representative of the Attorney-General's Chambers, and a representative of the Finance Ministry, former chief secretary to Ali Hamsa, and the former audit director, to discuss about the 1MDB audit report. "As a result of the discussion, a few more paragraphs from the report were directed to be removed and altered," Madinah said.

On Feb 25, the 1MDB Audit Team was then ordered by Ali Hamsa to attend another meeting at his office with himself and Arul Kanda to continue discussions about the audit report, where a few more discoveries that were reported were removed and altered.  Later that same day, Ambrin, the former audit director and three other officers joined the continued discussion on the audit report.

On Feb 26, Shukry ordered the former audit director to remove paragraphs stating Low Taek Jho or Jho Low's attendance in one of the board meetings of 1MDB, on the reason that it was sensitive and to avoid the fact to be twisted by the opposition.

On Feb 28, former chief secretary to Ali Hamsa requested that the altered audited report be submitted to Ali Hamsa, which was done the next day.

On March 1, Ali Hamsa ordered the 1MDB Audit Team to once again attend a meeting to discuss the altered audit report. "During this session, only the former president and CEO of 1MDB (Arul Kanda) was present and he checked the report in detail with the Audit Team and requested a few more changes (removals/alterations) to the report," Madinah said.

On March 2, the final audit report was printed and the following day, two copies of the report were submitted to Ali Hamsa. The report was then presented to the PAC on March 4 and 7.

Madinah said she briefed the Cabinet on Friday (Nov 23) about the issue and was told to issue a statement on what took place regarding the tampering on the audit report. 

"The unaltered version of the 1MDB audit report has also been submitted to the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission and the police for further investigation in 2018," she added.