KUALA LUMPUR: Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang is confident that the national auditor’s report on debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) can be completed by the end of this year.

The country’s chief auditor said his department is eager to finish its probe into 1MDB’s books as soon as possible.

“I am working hard to complete it as soon as possible, by the end of this year,” Ambrin told reporters after a conference on governance, risk and control here yesterday.

The auditor-general began his inspection into 1MDB’s accounts earlier this year under the direction of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also finance minister and chairman of 1MDB’s advisory board.

The Finance Ministry-owned firm is under scrutiny after amassing a RM42 billion debt since it began operations in 2009, as well as for its questionable deals.

The auditor-general’s interim report on 1MDB has been submitted to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which was to conduct its own probe into the investor. But the PAC’s work has been temporarily halted pending the appointment of a new chairman and members, following a Cabinet reshuffle which saw its former chairman and three other members promoted to the government administration.

Ambrin yesterday also chided government-linked companies for weaknesses in administration, questioning why several of them had yet to conduct internal audits.

“It is important in order to administer the company well. There are some who do not conduct internal audits,” he told the conference, which was attended by staff of government and non-governmental bodies. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on September 8, 2015.