KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will send out letters by next week at the latest to summon 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) president and group executive director Arul Kanda Kandasamy and former chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Shahrol Halmi for a hearing in relation to the probe into the strategic investment fund.

The duo will be given ample notice this time — more than a month compared with the usual two weeks — according to PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed. The hearing is scheduled for the first week of August.

Both Arul and Shahrol were absent from the first hearing on May 26, citing short notice and that they had business travel plans as their reasons for skipping the meeting.

“We are going to issue letters to the CEOs (Arul and Shahrol) to come (for the hearing) in the first week of August. Now [we will see], whether to issue the letters for them together or individually,” Nur Jazlan told reporters yesterday.

To recap, the PAC had previously sent a letter to Ministry of Finance  (MoF) officials on May 6, requesting that Arul and Shahrol appear before the committee on May 26. However, the duo did not show up for their first appearance before the PAC and the meeting had to be postponed after the MoF allegedly notified them late.

Arul said at the time that 1MDB only received the letter from the MoF on May 21, and responded that same day. The duo also requested a 30-day extension from the PAC.

Audit firm KPMG, meanwhile, has been summoned to give a statement to the PAC next Wednesday.

KPMG is 1MDB’s second auditor, which did not sign off the fund’s accounts for the financial year ended March 2013. Ernst & Young was the first auditor, prior to KPMG.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on June 12, 2015.