KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak cited a parliamentary order as the reason for not revealing details pertaining to the controversial dealings involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and PetroSaudi International Ltd in London.

DAP Petaling Jaya Utara Member of Parliament Tony Pua had asked Najib, who is the finance minister and chairman of the board of advisers at 1MDB, to state whether the management of 1MDB had only met PetroSaudi for the first time on Sept 23, 2009, which was five days before the agreement was signed between 1MDB and PetroSaudi.

“The matter raised by [Pua] is based on a news report by a portal which cannot ascertain the authenticity of its sources.

“Therefore, the matter is under the 23(1)(i) Standing Order that states a question shall not be asked to whether statements in the press or of private individuals or financial bodies are accurate,” Najib said in his written reply to a parliamentary question by Pua yesterday.

On whether the agreement was approved by 1MDB’s board of directors at the time, Najib replied that “all decisions and dealings of 1MDB are decided by the management and board of 1MDB”.

To recap, documents on whistle-blower website Sarawak Report had showed that four days after 1MDB PetroSaudi was created, PetroSaudi signed an agreement saying the subsidiary owed it US$700 million (RM2.55 billion).

Pua had previously said that instead of making money from the deal with PetroSaudi, 1MDB president Arul Kanda Kandasamy had to explain a loss of US$1.1 billion.

“Arul was proud to announce that 1MDB made US$488 million of profit from the PetroSaudi transaction, but what we have at hand is at least US$1.1 billion missing in unknown whereabouts.

“The next question to ask is hence, where exactly is this US$488 million of ‘paper’ profit Arul was talking about?” Pua asked.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 29, 2015.