Friday 29 Mar 2024
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Tony-Pua_FD_24july2015_theedgemarketsKUALA LUMPUR: The auditor-general’s (AG) interim audit report on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has answers to the allegations of tampering and doctoring of documents by London-based Sarawak Report and The Edge, said opposition lawmaker Tony Pua.

“Based on the information provided in the report, all questions of whether the data [detailing how] 1MDB and PetroSaudi International Ltd [conspired to cheat Malaysia of US$1.83 billion [RM6.97 billion]) — which was exposed by Sarawak Report and other media outlets such as The Edge — was tampered with, fabricated, doctored or otherwise will be immediately put to rest,” he told a news conference at the DAP headquarters yesterday.

“I can’t elaborate on the contents of the report. I can only say that the report is fairly comprehensive, [although] it is not complete as it is interim.

“But in what it has already discovered when it looked into the 1MDB-PetroSaudi transactions, the relevant issues that were raised by Sarawak Report has been dealt with,” said Pua, who is a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which was presented with the 70-page interim report on July 9. AG Tan Sri Ambrin Buang had also held a briefing for members of the PAC on that day.

“So, whether the Sarawak Report has tampered with the data is already [answered] here (AG's interim report).

“I can't tell you the answer or I will be punished by Parliament. But I can tell you the answer is in here,” Pua said.

Pua said the 1MDB scandal, which is making Malaysia the butt of international derision, can be ended today if Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also the finance minister, instructs the AG to make public the findings in the interim report on 1MDB.

“Najib has a very simple way to end the exceedingly unhealthy speculation over whose allegations are the truth, and whose are fabricated.

“It is going to address all of the issues over alleged tampering of data in relation to the 1MDB-PetroSaudi transactions,” he added.

Meanwhile, DAP’s legal bureau chief and Puchong member of parliament (MP) Gobind Singh Deo said Pua will file for a judicial review against an order by the government banning him from travelling abroad.

“We will give them a week to respond, and then we will apply for a judicial review to challenge the ban imposed,” he said.

Gobind noted that Pua, as Petaling Jaya Utara MP and a PAC member, should be allowed to travel abroad for official or personal reasons.

Pua and PKR’s Rafizi Ramli, who have been vociferous in their criticism of 1MDB, as well as The Edge Media Group owner Datuk Tong Kooi Ong have been barred by immigration authorities from leaving the country. 

Pua was reported as saying that he was to fly to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, for work purposes when he was stopped by the immigration at klia2 in Sepang on Wednesday.

Apart from the trio, Batu MP Tian Chua and activists Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, Maria Chin Abdullah, Hishamuddin Rais and Adam Adli Abdul Halim have found that they would have to refer to the nearest immigration office if they wanted to go abroad. Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, managing director of SRC International Sdn Bhd and former chief investment officer of 1MDB, is also among those barred from leaving the country.

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on July 24, 2015.

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