Auditor-General and PAC Chairman's decision not to pursue 1MDB scandal proves that they are compromised and unfit to protect the interest of Malaysians

Malaysians are aghast, but perhaps not surprised, that both the new Auditor-General, Tan Sri Madinah Mohamad and the Public Accounts Committee Chairman, Datuk Seri Hasan Arifin have decided against pursuing the 1MDB investigations and audit further.

This is despite the fact that the United States Department of Justice (US DOJ) had over the past one year, revealed new explosive evidence and details of how the billions of dollars of 1MDB funds have been misappropriated, stolen and laundered all around the world.

Most incriminatingly, the US DOJ suits detailed how more than US$732 million (RM3.1 billion) flowed in and out of the Prime Minister’s personal bank account between 2011 and 2014.  The specific dates and amounts of funds transferred, as well as the respective banks involved are listed in Table A on below.

Even the most partial observers would have to concede that there is a prima facie case to investigate the flow of funds, to determine the veracity of the allegations contained in the US DOJ report.  The investigators in the United States did not pluck these transactions out of the sky, but have meticulously corroborated all evidence with all the international banks across the world from global banks like Standard Chartered Bank to private banks like Falcon Bank of Switzerland.

None of the above transactions were investigated or were made available to the previous Auditor-General Report by the then Auditor-General, Tan Sri Ambrin Buang as well as the Public Accounts Committee Report tabled in Parliament in April 2016.

The Auditor-General then had reprimanded 1MDB for refusing to hand over its foreign bank account statements and transaction verifications despite multiple requests.  However, even without the above, there was sufficient damning evidence of abuse and mismanagement within 1MDB for the PAC to table its critical report last year. 

Now, with the scale of new explosive details of the scandal surfacing since the April 2016 Report, any God-fearing and responsible Auditor-General or PAC Chairman would have demanded a re-opening of their investigations.

While the PAC had a meeting yesterday to receive the latest Auditor-General’s Report, there was no discussion of pursuing the 1MDB investigations.  Instead Dato’ Seri Hasan Arifin unilaterally told the media that the Committee will not re-open the case.

On the other hand, Tan Sri Madinah Mohamad merely added her department would do so only if it receives instructions from the Cabinet.  Such instruction would never come of course, given the blatant conflict of interests involved with the Finance and Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak directly implicated in the massive scandal.

Their refusal to pursue the investigations only serves to entrench the rakyat’s perception that they are stooges installed by Dato’ Seri Najib Razak to protect the latter from the outrageous scandal.  After all, it has been exposed previously that Tan Sri Madinah is or was an UMNO Kepong Division member where her husband is the Division Chairman, Datuk Rizuan Abdul Hamid had openly expressed his willingness to “die for Najib”.  On the other hand, Dato’ Seri Hasan Arifin was installed as the PAC Chairman after the previous Chairman, Datuk Nur Jazlan was “promoted” to become a Deputy Minister.  Dato’ Seri Hasan had in his own words, rejected the need to summon Dato’ Seri Najib to the PAC because he has to “cari makan”.

These top officials have betrayed the interest of the rakyat and are traitors to their race, religion and nation.  If they have any iota of honour left in them, they should resign from their positions and let others who have the interest of Malaysians at heart take over these posts.

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It is time for the Auditor-General and Public Accounts Committee to investigate the shenanigans which has taken place in Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd

Both the FGVH Chairman, Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dato’ Zakaria Arshad have traded barbs and accusations against each other on irregular transactions and activities which have taken place in the struggling plantation company.

The CEO has accused the Board of Directors of approving “ridiculous deals”, despite the objections of the management executive committee.  The “ridiculous deals” included a GBP100 million additional investment in Felda Cambridge Nanosystems Ltd which had already lost RM117 million in the past few years and another RM300 to acquire a 30% stake in a creamer factory, which is not part of Felda’s core business.

Tan Sri Isa and the Board of Directors have to date failed to provide any clarity or rebuttal against the CEO allegations, lending credence to the veracity that the Board has indeed approved these “ridiculous deals”.

On the other hand, Tan Sri Isa has led the Board to suspend the CEO and four other members of the Management, including the Chief Financial Officer for alleged irregularities in payments from a Dubai-based Afgan company, Safitex Trading LLC to a FGVH subsidiary, Delima Oil Sdn Bhd.

According to the Board, Safitex’s debt to FGVH increased from US$8.3 million in 2015 to US$11.7 million in 2016.

Dato’ Zakaria has publicly denied any wrongdoing or “violation of the corporate governance code”.  Initially, in a letter to the Chairman dated 5 June 2017, Reuters reported that he claimed “The payment process... was approved and implemented by the previous chief executive...”

He has also insisted that the amount involved was only US$11.7 million, barely 0.2% of FGVH’s total revenue which did not justify the gravity of the actions taken by Tan Sri Isa.

Yesterday, in a Edge Financial Daily report, Dato’ Zakaria further insisted that the Safitex debt is “100% recoverable”.

However, despite the denial and the attempt to make light of any possible transgression in the above payment, Dato’ Zakaria did not sound convincing in the reasons for the delay of payment by the Afgan company.

No tangible reasons have been given as to why the sum has been outstanding since 2015, or why it would be recoverable. It further begs the question as to why the Afgan company has been given such special leeway in payment terms, particularly since the sums involved were so small in the first place.

Juxtaposed against the company’s performance where its profits plunged dramatically from RM982 million in 2013 to RM325 million, RM182 million and RM31 million in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively, the exposes by both the Board and the Management raises major questions on the scale of shenanigans taking place in FGVH over the past few years.

Therefore, the dire situation in FGVH demands more than merely the appointment of Dato’ Seri Idris Jala to be an “independent party” to establish the facts of the case and recommend the way forward.  The former Minister’s appointment and any outcomes arising from his appointment will smell of a political compromise and smack of opaque cover ups.

The gravity of the failure and imbroglio in FGVH demands a thorough investigative audit by both the Auditor-General (AG) as well as the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC).  This will not be the first time an audit is carried out in a public-listed company substantially owned and controlled by the Government.  Previously, the PAC has also carried out a thorough investigations of the construction of KLIA2 by Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad.

Both the AG and the PAC have previously refused to re-open investigations into the 1MDB scandal despite new incriminating evidence from the United States Department of Justice, as well as to initiate investigations into SRC International for transferring tens of millions of ringgit into the personal bank account of the Prime Minister.

However, Malaysians hope that both the AG and the PAC will still carry out part of their responsibility to investigate major shenanigans in government-linked companies to protect the interest of the nation’s taxpayers.  The failure by the AG and the PAC to do so would only go to prove that these vital institutions have been severely compromised to ensure that only minor infractions in the civil service will be investigated.

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