This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 8, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said he was disappointed that the auditor-general’s (AG) final audit report on troubled 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) was not tabled in Parliament yesterday.

“This (the Public Accounts Committee [PAC] report) is an incomplete report because the AG’s final audit report is not included as the latter is still classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA),” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby. 

“How do we debate on [the] PAC’s findings when its report is incomplete?” he asked.

Earlier yesterday, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia said the AG’s report on 1MDB was not tabled in Parliament as it is a classified document under the OSA. “We are disappointed about this as today (yesterday) is the last sitting of the current parliamentary meeting. The [AG’s] audit report should be tabled so that we can debate on it,” said Mohamed Azmin, who is the Gombak member of parliament (MP).

“If you look at the order paper, there is no room for us to debate it. This is not democratic, and how do we have parliamentary reform when the basic procedure is not respected and the members of parliament have no room to debate the report,” he added.

In a statement yesterday, DAP parliamentary leader and MP for Gelang Patah Lim Kit Siang said there are at least three basic flaws in the PAC report on 1MDB. “Firstly, the PAC report does not append the AG’s interim report on 1MDB submitted to the PAC in June last year.

“Secondly, it does not append the AG’s 300-page final audit report on 1MDB submitted to the PAC last month,” he said.

He pointed to the third major flaw of the tabling of the PAC report on 1MDB in Parliament yesterday to the disappearance of PAC chairman Datuk Hasan Arifin. “A text message from the PAC secretariat to PAC members yesterday gave notification that the PAC chairman would not be holding a press conference today (yesterday) after the tabling of the PAC report on 1MDB, as Hasan is ill and would only answer media questions on the PAC report on 1MDB in the next Dewan Rakyat meeting.

“What sickness is Hasan suffering from that he anticipated such a long illness?” Kit Siang asked. “I wish Hasan [a] swift and full recovery, but [the] PAC has a deputy chairman, MP for Kepong Dr Tan Seng Giaw, who should be able to stand in Hasan’s stead to conduct a media conference on the tabling of the PAC report on 1MDB,” he added.

Meanwhile, Barisan Nasional leaders said it is unfair to single out Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak as the person responsible for the 1MDB scandal.

“To me, to put Datuk Najib as the focal point [of 1MDB woes] is unfair. Datuk Najib is involved in a lot of things from matters relating to Petroliam Nasional Bhd, which is under the prime minister’s purview, to GLCs (government-linked companies) such as Khazanah Nasional Bhd and Lembaga Tabung Haji,” Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Razali Ibrahim told reporters at the Parliament lobby yesterday.

“We are trapped by the general discussion that often steers to 1MDB, which is not true. Because we have the management that should be responsible, as a minister or prime minister, he (Najib) can only give [his] opinion, advice and assistance [to the company’s] chairman and CEO (chief executive officer),” said Razali.

“He (Najib) is also not involved in every transaction in the management of the company.

“To say that he is not named in the report and make it an issue, I think it is not fair unless you want to talk politics. When the country’s economy is good, no one says Najib is good,” he added.

The 106-page PAC report revealed that the state investment company’s board of directors and former management had failed to carry out their responsibilities, which had racked up debts of RM50 billion as at January 2016. Najib is chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisers.

In the report, the parliamentary committee had said 1MDB’s former CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi should take responsibility for weaknesses in the company. It asked that the authorities start investigations into Shahrol and other management, without specifying any other names.

However, some quarters have questioned why the prime minister was not named in the report as 1MDB was his brainchild.

Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said to say that Najib is responsible, there has to be a basis for it. “The basis for it as I’ve mentioned is three things: rationalisation of 1MDB must take place, accountability must be determined and transparency. This is the process,” Hishammuddin said.

“As long as we are transparent with the public, why should we go around pointing fingers at anyone until investigation has been carried out so that we can get to the bottom of it? That I think is the fairest way to go forward,” he said.

On the next step following the PAC report, Hishammuddin said: “We will have to discuss it. We have this process of the PAC and we’re going through it. We just got it (PAC report on 1MDB) today (yesterday), so the public will have to understand that we need time to digest it.”