KUALA LUMPUR (May 23): DAP Parliamentary Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang has asked why the Auditor-General’s final report on Ministry of Finance Inc’s 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has yet to be tabled in Parliament.

In a statement today, Lim also questioned Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Datuk Hasan Arifin’s alleged `feet-dragging’ in tabling the report despite giving a categorical statement on March 7 that it would be declassified under the Official Secrets Act 1972 (OSA).

“Will Hasan apologise for his several breaches of parliamentary privileges in connection with the PAC Report on 1MDB and make amends by tabling in Parliament the Report of the Auditor-General on 1MDB as he had promised on March 7?

“Can Hasan explain why he is dragging his feet in tabling the Auditor-General’s final report on 1MDB as attachment to the PAC Report on 1MDB?

“What has Hasan and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and his government to hide in refusing to make public the Auditor-General’s final report on 1MDB?” Lim asked.

He added that PAC Report on the 1MDB had only dealt with the “tip of the iceberg” of the 1MDB global financial scandal, leaving many leading and  important questions unanswered.

“Is Hasan as the PAC chairman prepared to re-open PAC investigations into the 1MDB scandal to get to the bottom of the nation’s first global financial scandal, or will he resign as PAC chairman so that PAC could re-open investigations into the 1MDB scandal without any impediment or obstacle whatsoever?” Lim further said.

He also asked where in the Parliamentary Standing Orders allows the PAC chief to receive information that is denied to other PAC members as in the case of a Bank Negara letter to Hasan regarding Good Star Ltd, the company implicated in the `original sin’ of 1MDB.

The Gelang Patah MP expressed surprise that Parliament Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia allegedly failed to uphold parliamentary principle and instead supported the argument that OSA could be used as a justification and not extend information by PAC to the House.

“An important principle of parliamentary democracy is involved here. As PAC is a committee of Parliament, any document or information provided to PAC must be regarded as being provided to Parliament and must be finally submitted to Parliament, and no witness or agency should be allowed to make the utterly spurious and unacceptable claim that its information provided to the PAC is only for the “intelligence” of PAC but not to be extended to Parliament,” he said.

Lim explained that the PAC report on 1MDB tabled on April 7 was to be followed with the tabling of the final report to Parliament which will adjourn on Thursday.

“Hasan had said at the time (March 7) that Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang explained the Auditor-General’s final report on 1MDB will no longer be a classified document under OSA once PAC tables its 1MDB report,” he said.

However, there have been no signs of that happening to date, Lim added.