Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on November 14, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will kick off its investigation in the first week of December this year into the allegations the 2016 Auditor-General’s Report on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has been tampered with.

As for other proceedings relating to allegations of wrongdoing at the fund, they will be postponed until the criminal charges in relation to the matter that have been brought to court are disposed of,” said PAC deputy chairman Wong Kah Woh.

“The PAC has made the decision to set three days (Dec 4-6) for the proceedings [on the audit report],” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby yesterday.

Among the witnesses the PAC will call during the proceedings include former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang and current Auditor-General Tan Sri Madinah Mohamad, said Wong.

“As to the core issue of the 1MDB scandal, we will take it when the time comes, depending on the progress of the case prosecution by the AG’s (Attorney-General’s) Chambers,” he said.

PAC chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee told reporters the PAC decided to delay its reinvestigation into 1MDB as AG Tommy Thomas has advised that reopening the case now may be prejudicial due to the 1MDB-linked criminal charges that have been brought to court.

Hence, the PAC has postponed its proceedings on the matter indefinitely, while the law takes its course.

In March 2015, the previous government ordered the National Audit Department to audit 1MDB accounts and the resultant audit report was submitted to PAC two months later. But in March 2016, it was revealed that the report had been classified as state secret under the Official Secrets Act, before the PAC tabled its own 1MDB report in Parliament.

The report was declassified in May this year.

Last month, Wong claimed that the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB had been tampered with on the instruction of certain individuals, as he slammed the previous PAC for failing to re-open investigations into the investment fund despite the civil suits filed by the US’ Department of Justice alleging that the money had been siphoned off from it.

Ambrin has denied that his report was tampered with.

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