This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on October 20, 2015.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) newly appointed chairman Datuk Hasan Arifin said he would prioritise investigations into troubled 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) along with other national financial issues.

“Since I’ve just been appointed as PAC chairman, I will have to look at all the reports by the auditor-general (AG) on 1MDB first. The government has promised to expedite this investigation and any delay is just a matter of perception,” he said in his first press conference as PAC chairman at the Parliament lobby yesterday.

“I don’t want to say when we are going to convene the first PAC meeting, but we will do so the moment the other PAC members have been selected [by their respective parties],” said Hasan, who is also the member of parliament (MP) for Rompin.

The PAC had been dealing with investigations into 1MDB and received the AG’s interim report on the investigation in July. However, the probe was put on hold after the PAC lost its chairman and three Barisan Nasional members when they were promoted to the Cabinet in a sudden reshuffle later that same month.

The PAC was scheduled to question 1MDB’s top executives, including its former chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Shahrol Halmi, president and group executive director Arul Kanda Kandasamy and Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman, who served as CEO from March 2013 to January 2015, in August.

1MDB has amassed RM42 billion in debt since it started operations in 2009, and is currently under other investigations for alleged financial improprieties. The firm has come under fire from both opposition members and former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Earlier yesterday, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman moved a motion in Parliament to appoint Hasan as the new PAC chairman, which was passed after much debate.

Hasan replaces Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed, who is now deputy home minister, following the Cabinet reshuffle.

Apart from Nur Jazlan, three other PAC members including Datuk Wilfred Madius Tangau was appointed as science, technology and innovation minister, while Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican and Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin were appointed deputy ministers.

With Hasan’s appointment as the new PAC chief, both BN and the opposition must now nominate their candidates to the PAC’s select committee before the bipartisan committee can reconvene. Upon nomination, they will be appointed by the select committee chaired by Speaker Tan Sri Amin Pandikar Mulia.

However, Hasan admitted that the recent political situation where PAS saw its progressive members forming another party, Parti Amanah Negara, might lead to more new faces in the PAC line-up.

“It’s come to my understanding that the recent changes in some political parties, like PAS for instance, might have changed their PAC line-up. So, after the new members have been officially appointed by the select committee, only then we will convene the first meeting,” he said.

Touching on the criticisms against PAC member Tony Pua, a staunch critic of 1MDB, and the calls for his removal from the committee, Hasan said it would be discussed during the first PAC meeting.

“I cannot judge perceptions, even if it comes from BN. We will have our first meeting and look into it,” said Hasan, adding that he will conduct his duties fairly and without fear or favour.

The bipartisan committee consists of 13 members, of whom eight are from BN and the remaining five from the opposition.

Meanwhile, Nur Jazlan urged members of the PAC to give their full cooperation to Hasan.

“As the former chairman, I pray that he gets good cooperation from both parties that are members of the PAC, so that the work of PAC which was put on hold previously may continue.

“And members of the PAC should also give their full cooperation to him — the way they cooperated with me,” he told reporters after speaking at a luncheon with the Malaysian-Bosnia and Herzegovina Business Council yesterday.

Hasan clinched the Rompin seat during by-election in May, after former MP Tan Sri Jamaluddin Jarjis died in a helicopter crash.

Hasan, 62, formerly served as Pahang’s deputy menteri besar between 1995 to 1999, and was a four-term state assemblyman in Pahang for the Tioman and Bukit Ibam state constituencies.

He is also seen as a close associate of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the chairman of 1MDB's board of advisors.