(May 27): The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today dismissed 1MDB's top executive's excuse for failing to attend its proceedings, and said no more second chances would be given to them once they are summoned again.

Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohd said 1MDB president and group executive Arul Kanda Kandasamy and former chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Shahrol Halmi would be summoned after PAC called up auditing firms Deloitte and KPMG.

"As far as we are concerned, we gave them ample notice, more than two weeks. Whether Arul got his notification late from MOF (Finance Ministry), that's not our concern.

"We do not send letters (of notification) directly to the witnesses involved. We go to the officers," Jazlan told a press conference in Parliament.

"After we call the auditors, we can call the CEOs back again. But no more delays. The confusion with the MOF and the two CEOs has already caused us a bit of a problem."

Nur Jazlan said PAC had sent a letter to MOF officials on May 6, requesting Arul and Shahrol to appear before the committee on May 26.

But yesterday, Arul said that 1MDB only received the letter from MOF on May 21, and had responded that same day.

Commenting on this, Nur Jazlan said it was not PAC’s fault if MOF informed them late.

Meanwhile, Nur Jazlan said PAC had sent letters to the MOF requesting Deloitte’s presence on June 10 and KPMG on June 17.

“We call the two first. The current one and the immediate past one. But the plan is to call all three,” he added, referring to Ernst & Young, which had also worked on 1MDB’s accounts.

He added they had yet to decide on whether to call Datuk Seri Najib Razak before the committee, following reports that the prime minister has the final say over any “financial commitment” undertaken by 1MDB’s precursor, the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA).

“Be patient. First we have to call officers, to determine the ministry in charge, then we call the management, then we call the auditors, and only then we call the board.

“Once we get all the information, then we can decide who we’ll call next,” he said.

When asked to confirm whether 1MDB’s Memorandum and Articles of Association agreement did include a clause requiring Najib’s written approval for its financial investments, Jazlan merely said: “Well, it’s public information.”

But he added he had yet to see the document for himself.

The parliamentary bipartisan committee began its own hearings on the matter on May 19, after deciding not to wait for an independent probe by the auditor-general to be completed. – The Malaysian Insider