KUALA LUMPUR (April 8): 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) refusal to hand over its foreign bank account statements and that of its foreign subsidiaries to the Auditor-General (AG) and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has raised suspicions that the "billions of dollars" which a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report said had gone missing from 1MDB are indeed missing, DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua said today.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on 1MDB was tabled in Parliament yesterday, revealing that the AG was unable to verify actual transactions between the state investment company and Good Star Ltd of US$700 million and US$330 million, as well as a sum of US$3.51 billion paid to British Virgin Islands incorporated Aabar Investment PJS Ltd.
Pua, who is also member of parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara, said although the PAC report on 1MDB never specifically stated that billions were missing officially, the matter remains that billions were unaccounted for and cannot be verified, as confirmed by the AG.
“Hence, if 1MDB is so offended by the missing billions description by WSJ, why didn’t the company show where these monies were with its bank statements and their respective transaction details to the AG, since May 2015?” he said in a statement today.
“In fact, 1MDB’s recalcitrance and utter contempt for the AG over the above, despite countless reminders by the AG and the PAC, only goes to reinforce the global suspicions that the billions of dollars have indeed gone missing,” he added.
He also noted that as a result of 1MDB’s refusal to cooperate, the AG was also unable to ascertain the purported existence and value of a so-called US$940 million worth of “units” parked at the Swiss Bank branch of BSI Bank in Singapore.
1MDB had hit out at WSJ yesterday for running a “misleading” headline on its website that stated a parliament inquiry found billions of dollars had gone missing from 1MDB, recommending criminal probe of senior management.
In another statement, Pua once again called on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also the finance minister, to take full responsibility for the transgressions of 1MDB being a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
Pua said Najib had personally signed all written resolutions approving its investments in the failed US$1.83 billion Petrosaudi joint venture, the borrowing of US$6.5 billion of bonds, the multi-billion ringgit acquisition of the power plants and real estate, as well as the sacking of both external auditors — Ernst & Young and KPMG.
He said this was in line with 1MDB’s Memorandum and Articles of Association, which states every substantial transaction carried out by 1MDB requires Najib’s explicit written endorsement.
The PAC report had also recommended that former 1MDB chief executive officer Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and other top executives be investigated over the affairs of the company, which had racked up debts of RM50 billion as at January 2016.
The PAC had also singled out the 1MDB’s board of directors for failing to carry out its responsibility to protect the interests of the company and shareholders, and had failed to take proper action in reviewing the activities of management, as well as future cash flow of the company.