(Oct 23): It is up to Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia to decide if Public Accounts Committee (PAC) members should take an oath of secrecy, its chairman, Datuk Hasan Arifin, said today.

In a statement, Hasan said he welcomed Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's suggestion that PAC members take a secrecy oath, but added that such decisions should be made by the speaker.

"It is up to the speaker to decide if PAC members must take such an oath," he said.

"Therefore, as chair of PAC, I leave it to Pandikar's discretion and authority to handle this matter based on the power given to him as speaker of the Dewan Rakyat."

Zahid, who is also home minister, had proposed that PAC members take an oath of secrecy to prevent the leakage of information related to its proceedings.

In mooting the suggestion, he said any statements or reports must originate officially from the bipartisan panel and not from the personal views of any of its members.

The suggestion, however, did not go down well with PAC deputy chairman Dr Tan Seng Giaw who said there was no need for such an oath as they were already required to keep committee proceedings under wraps under the house’s Standing Orders.

Hasan today also reminded PAC members that they were bound by rules of confidentiality and contents of the committee’s hearings should not be disclosed to the public before they were presented to the Parliament.

“I hope all PAC members realise that they are bound by standing orders which clearly state that evidence brought before the committee needs to be presented in the house first before it is made a public document.”

He said that he would be open to any “improvements” on PAC suggested by the public and also political parties.

Hasan had said one of PAC’s main agendas upon reconvening would be to discuss the ethics and code of conduct of its members.

Zahid’s suggestion came after PAC member and staunch critic of troubled 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) Tony Pua had been accused of leaking confidential information related to the state investment vehicle to The Wall Street Journal, which recently reported that a US$1.4 billion (RM6.02 billion) payment from 1MDB to a subsidiary of the International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), was missing.

IPIC is a state investment vehicle of the United Arab Emirates.

1MDB had refuted the report and said the US-based newspaper had breached Malaysian laws by referring to “transcript of the proceedings”, which it said, could only be presented at PAC hearings on 1MDB. – The Malaysian Insider