KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 25): The Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission says it has initiated investigations into allegations that the Final Audit Report on 1Malaysia Development Bhd by the National Audit Department has been tampered with.

"MACC has also looked at the original report to compare it with the final draft that was issued by the National Audit Department. 

"With respect to that, MACC will call several witnesses in the nearest period to give their statements and to help with investigations into the issue," the anti-graft body said in a statement today.

The announcement came after Auditor-General Tan Sri Dr Madinah Mohamad issued a statement confirming that the original audit report on 1MDB issued in 2016 has been altered, and that orders to tamper with the report first came from former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Among the alterations done prior to the audit report being presented to the Public ACcounts Committee on March 4, 2016, was the removal of the mention of Low Taek Jho or Jho Low's attendance at a 1MDB board meeting.

According to Madinah, others involved in the tampering were Najib's former chief private secretary Tan Sri Shukry Salleh, former 1MDB president and CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy, former chief secretary to the government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa, and former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang.