Friday 29 Mar 2024
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(Aug 18): DAP lawmaker Tony Pua today again slammed 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) over the troubled state fund's continued "rehashed and recycled" answers surrounding its dealings.

Pua, who is one of 1MDB's chief critics, took to task 1MDB president and group executive director Arul Kanda Kandasamy for evading questions that he raised about the debt-ridden company, especially over its investments.

"He (Arul Kanda) once again claimed that I have made 'repeatedly unproven, recycled and reused allegations'.  While I have made many allegations against 1MDB previously, the current matter being raised isn’t an allegation but a repeated request for clarification which 1MDB has failed to provide," Pua said in a statement today.

"The latest response by 1MDB yesterday is a testament to Arul Kanda’s a habit of repeating recycled and reused 'clarifications', which never answer the questions posed.  Worse, it is a less-than-disguised attempt to obfuscate the facts."

Pua was referring to his query about the US$1.1 billion (RM4.4 billion) that 1MDB and Putrajaya said had been redeemed from the Cayman Islands.

Arul Kanda said the redeemed proceeds were “cash” held outside Malaysia, but Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah later told Parliament that the funds were in the form of "assets" and "units".

Pua said that since the funds were not in "cash" as claimed, Malaysians wanted to know what exactly were the "units" and what are the bank assessed value of these “units” post-redemption.

Pua, who is Petaling Jaya Utara MP, said Arul Kanda in response to this referred to its investments with Petrosaudi International which were made in murabaha notes and said 1MDB had “ultimately received US$2.318 billion of fund units, representing a gain over time of US$488 million”.

Arul Kanda added that “the valuation of the fund units was undertaken by the fund administrator and is clearly described in 1MDB’s audited financial statements.”

Pua said Arul Kanda failed to highlight that the last financial statements were for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014.

"That is nearly 17 months ago and well before the Cayman Islands investment was supposedly redeemed in January this year," Pua said.

"Is Arul Kanda trying to tell Malaysians that he has no clue what the redeemed 'units' held in BSI Bank Singapore are really worth today?  Is that also the reason why the 'units' cannot be disposed or liquidated despite being classified as 'investment assets for sale' in the 1MDB financial statements?"

He also questioned if these "investments" were the reason why Putrajaya had been forced to grant 1MDB an emergency loan of RM950 million, on top of the billions of ringgit of direct and indirect guarantees for additional loans and advances this year.

On Arul Kanda, he said the 1MDB president must not forget that he worked for wholly-owned government company and was accountable to the Malaysian taxpayers.

Yesterday, Pua hit out at Arul Kanda, saying that the latter should explain what the units constituted of instead of merely apologising for mistaking it as "cash".

1MDB's refusal to address the crucial questions, said Pua, would only convince the people that the state investment vehicle had lost all of the funds, leading to why taxpayers were forced to bail out the company.

In response, Arul Kanda said Pua was "not interested in the truth".

"Contrary to Pua’s claim, 1MDB has clearly provided detailed information on this on a number of occasions," he said.

"Such ‘monkey business’ by Pua does not benefit anyone. Malaysia is not a jungle. We have due process, procedures and laws to be followed. Accordingly, the lawful authorities must be allowed to carry on with their investigations."

1MDB has come under public scrutiny because of the whopping RM42 billion debts it racked up in the past six years.

The state company has not been able to generate enough to service its debts.

Also an investigation by the Public Accounts Committee, of which Pua is a member, has been suspended after its Barisan Nasional coalition members were promoted to the Cabinet in a recent reshuffle. New members will only be appointed after October 19 when Parliament reconvenes. – The Malaysian Insider

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