Arul Kanda’s disastrous record at 1MDB makes him the least qualified to take over the reigns of Khazanah Nasional

Malaysians were shocked to read the report by The Malaysian Insight on Thursday that Arul Kanda is one of the candidates being considered for the post of Managing Director of Khazanah Nasional.
The online portal reported that “a selection panel has been formed to look through the candidates who can take over from Azman (Mokhtar) whose contract expires in two years” and Arul Kanda is one of two outsiders being considered.

After the disastrous and disgraceful record at the debt-ridden 1MDB since his appointment in January 2015, Arul Kanda should be automatically disqualified from even consideration at the country’s sovereign wealth fund.

The latest catastrophe is the failure of 1MDB to fulfil its settlement obligations with Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Corporation (IPIC) in a timely matter.  Despite claiming since April 24 this year that its repayment to IPIC would be fulfilled via the “monetization” of 1MDB’s investment ‘units’ last known to be held in Singapore, IPIC had to twice extend the deadline for the first instalment payment scheduled on 31 July 2017.

1MDB has since managed to pay the “equivalent” of US$350 million on 11 August and would have up to 31 August to settle the balance of US$300 million.  However, even the above partial payment of the first instalment is shrouded in mystery as it is clear that the 1MDB ‘units’ have not been monetized while the source of the 1MDB funds were unclear.

In addition, Arul Kanda has botched the so-called rationalisation with the original attempt to sell 60% of Bandar Malaysia to the Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH) Sdn Bhd-led consortium.  Despite 1MDB having collected 10% of the sale amounting to RM741 million as “deposit”, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) had to terminate the contract due to IWH’s repeated failure to fulfil its obligations, it was MoF which had to refund the RM741 million “deposit” to the purchaser.

However, the worst deed of Arul Kanda has been to repeatedly lie to the Auditor-General, the Public Accounts Committee and Malaysians in general, to cover up the 1MDB scandal to ensure that those behind the multi-billion dollar misappropriation in the company would be let off scotfree.

For example, Arul Kanda is fully aware that 1MDB’s investment ‘units’ previously held at the now defunct BSI Bank, Singapore are fraudulent and more importantly are worth at best a tiny fraction of their purported US$2.318 billion in valuation.  The fraud has been uncovered by the United States Department of Justice, as reported in the additional civil suit filed in June this year.

However, despite having access to all the material documents and information, Arul Kanda has continued the pretence that 1MDB had already redeemed some US$1.3 billion worth of the ‘units’.  At one point Arul Kanda even told the 1MDB Directors that he has “seen the bank statements” that 1MDB had already received the proceeds in ‘cash’.

Today we know that the entire redemption exercise was a Ponzi-like round-tripping exercise using part of the proceeds from a Deutsche Bank loan to pretend that it’s the receipt from the ‘units’ redemption exercise.

Malaysians can only shiver in trepidation at the thought that a RM145 billion-Khazanah Nasional, which is relatively healthy today, would be helmed by the same person who hammered the final nail in 1MDB’s coffin.

The only thing more shocking I heard when I started sniffing around with regards to The Malaysian Insight report is the fact that Arul Kanda is also awaiting possible appointment as a Senator which comes with a Ministerial position.  If that were true, then it would be proof that the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak would only appoint those without a shred of honesty and integrity to the Cabinet.

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Finance Minister II Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani should not bluff Malaysians by stating that the Government “has never given public funds to 1MDB to settle its debts”

According to Bernama yesterday, Second Finance Minister, Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said that “the Finance Ministry (MoF) has never given any public funds to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) to help settle its debt”.

The Minister must think that Malaysians are complete and utter idiots to be served what is one of biggest piece of cow dung amongst all the attempts to cover up the 1MDB scandal.

The Ministry of Finance has on so many occasions come to the rescue of 1MDB over the past 2 years involving billions of ringgit of tax-payers’ monies, and yet Dato’ Seri Johari has the cheek to tell us that the MoF “has never given any public funds to 1MDB”.

Among the most clear-cut examples are the RM800 million loan from SOCSO and another RM2.4 billion Bandar Malaysia sukuk bond which the MoF have assumed as a result of taking over TRX City Sdn Bhd and Bandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

The Auditor-General has reported that nearly all of the above proceeds of the 1MDB borrowings were never used for the development of the 2 property projects above.  Hence when MoF agreed to take over the property projects and assumed the liabilities, MoF has effectively “settled” 1MDB’s RM3.2 billion debt problem.

What’s more, when 1MDB had originally sold a 60% stake in Bandar Malaysia to an Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH) Sdn Bhd-led consortium, they had collected, and presumably spent the RM741 million deposit which has been paid upon the signing of the sale and purchase agreement in December 2015.

However, when MoF terminated the sale due to IWH payment defaults, it was MoF who coughed up the RM741 million to refund the deposit paid by the consortium.   If the deposit, should have been refunded at all, it should have been by 1MDB, and not by the Malaysian tax-payers.

The above doesn’t yet include MoF subsidiary or subsidiaries which actually acquired properties from 1MDB in TRX at inflated prices.  The irony is, it was MoF who sold the land to 1MDB in the first place at dirt cheap prices.

We understand the conundrum Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani is facing as the 2nd Finance Minister who has fallen out of favour and having to defend the indefensible regain the Prime Minister’s favour.  It is now clear that he has been dropped by Dato’ Seri Najib Razak from handling the 1MDB imbroglio, particularly in the company’s multi-billion dollar dispute with Abu Dhabi’s IPIC.

However, the Second Finance Minister should not go to the extent to telling outright lies to pull the wool over the people’s eyes.  Dato’ Seri Johari should not forget his role and responsibility to the people of Malaysia by sacrificing his own integrity and honour.

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Dato’ Seri Najib Razak must answer what happened to the US$3.51 billion 1MDB said it has paid to IPIC or its subsidiaries

Yesterday, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak told the Malaysian and international investment community that there were only “lapses in governance” in 1MDB but he has “ordered investigations into the company at a scale unprecedented in our nation's history”.

If it were indeed true that investigations were are an “unprecedented” scale, then the investigators must be the most incompetent ever seen in Malaysian history.  This is because to date, the key questions surrounding the various dodgy investments by 1MDB and the billions of ringgit misappropriated, often to entities owned by Jho Low have never been explained.

In one of the few questions with regards to 1MDB which was not rejected by the Parliament Speaker, I had asked Dato’ Seri Najib Razak who is also the Finance Minister, why did we assume the liabilities of IPIC’s guarantee for 1MDB’s US$3.5 billion worth of bonds when 1MDB claimed that we have already paid IPIC or its subsidiaries the sum of US$3.51 billion.

1MDB, via its President and CEO, Arul Kanda, testified to both the Auditor-General and the Public Accounts Committee that 1MDB had already paid US$1.367 billion in collateral deposits in 2012, US$993 million in options termination compensation in 2014 and an additional US$1.15 billion in “top-up security deposit” also in 2014 to the IPIC group.

In the Finance Minister’s reply, he stated that 1MDB “is responsible for all future interest payments and the repayment of the principal for the 2 bonds” while the Ministry of Finance Incorporated has provided IPIC with the relevant “undertaking” and “indemnity”.  This effectively means that the Malaysian government has taken over the guarantee from IPIC.

The problem is, despite the boast of “investigations… at a scale unprecendented in our nation’s history”, Malaysians are no nearer to finding out what happened to the US$3.51 billion we have already paid.

And it is very apparent that the Prime Minister is also hiding this information via a convenient “lapse of governance” because he failed to answer this question in his parliamentary reply.

It is as if the US$3.51 billion paid to the IPIC group previously was but a minor detail, or an insignificant “lapse in governance” which didn’t require any justification or concern on the part of the Government.

Hence Dato’ Seri Najib Razak is only showing the thickness of his skin by trivialising the unprecedented scale of the RM50 billion 1MDB scandal and dismissing the Opposition protests as blowing the issue “out of proportion”.

Instead, the continued secrecy of the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB and the refusal to entertain 1MDB questions in Parliament seriously only leads to the public believe that the US$3.51 billion above, and more other billions of ringgit have been misappropriated, or worse, stolen at “a scale unprecedented”.

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Perfect opportunity for Auditor-General and PAC to re-look into 1MDB scandal: review 1MDB-IPIC settlement which had Malaysians bearing US$7.01 bil. to resolve 1MDB’s US$3.5 bil. bond borrowing

Yesterday, the Second Finance Minister, Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani desperately tried to backtrack from his original assertion which tried to shift the blame for the 1MDB-IPIC “settlement” to the Prime Minister.

The glorified ‘settlement’ had in effect shifted the burden on repaying 1MDB’s US$3.5 billion bond to the Ministry of Finance, despite repeated assertions by 1MDB and Dato’ Seri Johari himself that 1MDB has already paid IPIC US$3.51 billion in the past.  This meant that Malaysians have to bear a whopping US$7.01 billion to resolve 1MDB’s US$3.5 billion bond borrowing before even taking into consideration the annual interest payments of approximately US$200 million!

“I don't report to him. I never contradicted the Prime Minister. Don't try to split me and the prime minister with this matter," the Second Finance Minister told Malaysiakini.

However, I never accused him of “contradicting” the Prime Minister.  I merely repeated what he had said earlier, which was “the Prime Minister has made the decision for the country. That’s it,” and that the matter is now “beyond [him]”.  His own statement clearly showed that while he had all along said that the dispute between 1MDB and IPIC should go to arbitration and that he was “very confident” of the Malaysian parties winning the case, he had to wash his hands off the matter as the matter has been decided by the Prime Minister.

I had then said that if the US$3.5 billion or RM15 billion matter is “beyond [him]” as a Finance Minister, then he might as well resign from his office.

However, Dato’ Seri Johari shot back, asking "Who is Pua to ask me to resign?”  “I don't report to him. I never contradicted the prime minister. Don't try to split me and the Prime Minister with this matter," he added.

Dato’ Seri Johari appears to have forgotten, while he reports to the Prime Minister in the Cabinet, he is there to serve the interest of Malaysians and not that of the Prime Minister.  If the decision of the Prime Minister is clearly detrimental to the interest of Malaysians, as the settlement showed, then it is certainly the duty of a Finance Minister to make things right.

However, the Second Finance Minister is clearly more interested in blindly supporting Dato’ Seri Najib Razak, by brushing off my allegation that Najib was conflicted in making the decision with regard to the settlement.

I call upon Dato’ Seri Johari to access his conscience and determine facts of the matter, something which is fully within the powers of a Finance Minister. Of the US$3.51 billion which 1MDB had purportedly paid to IPIC, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak has received US$30 million in in personal bank account in while his stepson, Riza Aziz received US$238 million via his company, Red Granite.

The above facts which were outlined in United States Department of Justice (US DOJ) suit to seize US$1 billion of laundered assets by funds originating from 1MDB has never been disputed by Dato’ Seri Najib Razak himself, and if indeed true, the clearly puts the Prime Minister in a position of conflict when deciding on the settlement terms with IPIC.

If the Second Finance Minister is genuine in his desire to “serve the nation” as professed in his March open letter to me, then I ask him to join me in calling for the Auditor-General (AG) and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to re-look into the 1MDB scandal in the light of the latest developments.

It should be noted that the PAC was told by 1MDB and its CEO, Arul Kanda that all payments which have been made to IPIC would be used to offset the US$3.5 billion 1MDB bonds which were guaranteed by IPIC.  The PAC also never made the recommendation for the Ministry of Finance to take over the liability for the bonds from IPIC – that would be just ridiculous.

Hence, it is crucial for both the AG and the PAC to re-visit the 1MDB scandal in the light of new evidence, including but not limited to the “settlement” agreement with IPIC as well as the new information contained in the US DOJ suit to seize the US$1 billion worth of laundered assets with funds originating from 1MDB.

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1MDB new auditor’s biggest challenge now is to audit and verify the purported sale of 1MDB’s Brazen Sky or its assets to a “undisclosed third party”

The Singapore Straits Times reported that 1MDB is expected to ink an agreement with Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) to settle a dispute involving billions of dollars very soon.

In its report, the Singapore daily cited sources as saying the agreement would see 1MDB pay IPIC US$1.2 billion by year end, to settle a loan and accumulated interest from a bailout the IPIC gave 1MDB in July 2015.

It said most of the money would come from the sale of "fund units" from 1MDB subsidiary Brazen Sky to an undisclosed buyer.  Brazen Sky is of particular interest to 1MDB watchers because its account in Singapore's BSI Bank was supposed to be the account used to receive funds from 1MDB's Cayman Islands account.

If the Singapore Straits Times report is to be believed, then 1MDB’s newly appointed auditor, Parker Randall will now be faced with their biggest test to date.  Parker Randall, represented locally by the Malaysian audit firm, “Afrizan Tarmili Khairul Azhar” (aftaas) must carry out the necessary due diligence and audit to ensure that the transactions taking place are bona fide and above board.

Of interest is the fact that until today, 1MDB has failed to provide any form of clarity of these “fund units” worth US$940 million purported redeemed from a Cayman Island investment fund.

1MDB has refused, despite repeated demands from the Public Accounts Committee and the Auditor-General to provide financial statements and documents of 1MDB’s overseas bank accounts and assets, including that of Brazen Sky Limited.

Worse, these assets were purportedly parked in BSI Bank, Singapore which have already had its merchant banking license withdrawn by Monetary Authority of Singapore.  When questioned in Parliament, the Minister of Finance responded that these units were not managed by any fund manager or investment bank, while also refusing to where the “units” have been moved to.

Hence it is critical for Parker Randall or aftaas to confirm the existence and authenticity of the US$940 million worth of “units”.  Most interestingly, despite the fluctuating value of investment assets over time, these fund units appeared to have a frozen value of US$940 million since its redemption in January 2015.

In addition, should Brazen Sky or its assets be sold, Parker Randall must verify that the sale and purchase transaction is a genuine transaction and not another case of paper shuffling which have taken place earlier in 1MDB’s US$1.8 billion investment in Petrosaudi.

It is also important for Parker Randall to confirm and satisfy itself on the identity of the mysterious “undisclosed buyer” of these mysterious Brazen Sky assets as part of its audit verification. The auditors must also trace the money trail of the fund transfers from the mysterious undisclosed buyer into 1MDB before being transferred to IPIC.

The audit is all the more important given the spotlight 1MDB has, which has caused some half a dozen of banks around the world to be shutdown or penalised for facilitating money laundering transactions.

Surely, after Deloitte Malaysia disgracefully resigned from 1MDB for failing to detect any of the above illicit and money laundering activities, Parker Randall do not want to follow the same footsteps and sully its international reputation.

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Open Letter by Tony Pua, DAP National Publicity Secretary and Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara to Second Finance Minister, Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani on Tuesday, 20 March 2017

Dear Minister,

Thank you so much for your Open Letter addressed to me which was issued yesterday.  I am not sure whether I should be honoured to have received such a letter from a Minister for the very first time in my 9 years as a Member of Parliament.

Dato’,

You are extremely unhappy apparently because I called you a “liar” and accused you of “covering up for the Prime Minister”.  I checked my facts again and I’m more than happy to stand by my accusations.

Earlier this year, you told the media repeatedly that the Finance Ministry (MOF) would not take over any of the 1MDB’s debts.  This was a specific response to my question raised in mid-January as to whether the MOF took over 1MDB’s RM800 million loan from SOCSO and RM2.4 billion sukuk.

It was only when I received the convoluted parliamentary reply in the current sitting, I could conclude that MOF did indeed take over these debts.  The sad thing about the reply from the Minister of Finance was that it was clearly written in a way to obfuscate the truth.

You then dug a deeper hole for yourself by arguing that the RM3.2 billion of debt was an “operating debt” belonging to 1MDB’s wholly-owned subsidiary, 1MDB Real Estate (1MDB RE) and hence was not considered as 1MDB’s debt.  I then said that “no Finance Minister worth his salt would argue that the ‘operating debts’ of a wholly-owned subsidiary does not belong to the parent company’s accounting books”.

I also proved with facts published in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Report, extracted from the Auditor-General’s (AG) report that more than 87% or RM2.8 billion of the RM3.2 billion of 1MDB RE borrowings never went towards the development of 1MDB’s real estate properties.  Hence I asked why did the MOF not insist that these advances to 1MDB be repaid?

Dato’,

You then went on to tell an audience at a MIDF lunch talk that the Malaysian government couldn’t press charges against 1MDB personalities “without complete information”.  You supported your claim by saying the the Auditor-General and the PAC could not point to anything specifically wrong with 1MDB.

Again, I pointed to specific sections of the PAC Report which clearly concluded that the 1MDB top management has on dozens of occasions – lied and misled the Board of Directors, defied the decisions of the Board or worse, acted without the Board’s authority, all of which are legal offences.  The PAC even asked the authorities to investigate the CEO, Datuk Shahrol Halmi and other officers involved for the above wrongdoings.  However, a year later, Datuk Shahrol Halmi remains comfortably as of today, a Director of PEMANDU agency in the Prime Minister’s Department.

You added in your letter that, “as far as the government is concerned, there is nothing to hide and nothing to cover up.” Then, I ask you, if so, why do you not propose for the Cabinet refusing to declassify the ‘harmless’ Auditor-General’s Report?

However, instead of answering all of the above questions, you ask me to “give it a rest”.

You opined that 1MDB is the most scrutinised entity by all enforcement agencies in Malaysia. However, you fail to also disclose that every single investigating agency was hampered and disrupted.

When the PAC announced that we were summoning Jho Low for questioning, the PAC Chairman was soon replaced by Datuk Hasan Arifin who promptly reversed the decision.  Datuk Hasan, even responded that he has to “cari makan” when asked by the media if the Prime Minister would be summoned.

Despite the diligence of the Auditor-General’s Office, key documents such as 1MDB’s bank statements for its overseas subsidiaries were not handed over to the AG.  Neither did Arul Kanda or Datuk Shahrol hand over many other documents they promised when requested by the PAC.

The biggest farce must be the “Super-Taskforce” investigating 1MDB comprising of the Attorney-General, the Inspector-General of Police, the MACC Chief Commissioner and the Bank Negara Governor  set up by the Prime Minister himself.  Did you forget that just as the then Attorney-General discovered shenanigans relating to the Prime Minister, he was promptly “retired” on spurious ‘health’ reasons?  As if on queue, the new Attorney-General effectively dissolved the “Super-Taskforce” and even went to the extent of instructing the MACC to stop any further investigations on the matter.

Dato’,

You started your letter whining that you are merely working “serve the nation” by taking “positive and proactive” steps.

Perhaps let me gently remind you that there is a difference between ‘serving the nation’ and ‘serving the Prime Minister’, by covering up the scandal so that the truth gets swept under the carpet and the crooks get away scot-free.

Do you not realise that we are now a renown kleptocracy and how damaging that is for our country?  Everyone who has taken an interest in the affairs of Malaysia knows from the documents presented by the United States Department of Justice and the Singapore Courts that US$731 million from 1MDB, found its way through dodgy investment funds and deceptive offshore companies into the personal bank account of Dato’ Seri Najib Razak.

Do you not think that to “serve the nation”, we must work to revive our heavily-tarnished global reputation?  And do you not think that the only way we can remove the kleptocracy label from Malaysia is not by sweeping the truth under the carpet but instead ensure that the kleptocrats are charged and appropriately punished?

In fact, if you really want to take “positive and proactive steps” to help the nation, why haven’t you made a claim for the US$1 billion worth of assets being seized by the United States which were acquired with funds laundered and stolen from 1MDB?  Why is the Government still keeping up the pretences that 1MDB did not lose these billions of dollars?

Dear Minister,

The above are just some of the many reasons why I won’t give the 1MDB issue a rest.  The issue doesn’t deserve to be rested because you and your fellow Ministers have refused to answer simple questions and more importantly, the crooks who audaciously misappropriated more than US$5 billion are still at large.

Any elected representative with any sense of morality and integrity, who believes in protecting the interest of the man-on-the-street and who wants justice meted out to criminals who rob the country will never let the matter rest until the truth is found.

I am sure that my voters in Petaling Jaya Utara and all right-thinking Malaysians would overwhelmingly back my dogged persistence and relentless pursuit to ensure that Malaysia’s corrupt leaders and its kleptocratic government are made accountable for their crimes.

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Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani must prove that the Auditor-General (AG) couldn’t find specifically what went wrong with 1MDB by seeking declassification of the AG’s Report on 1MDB

Last week, the Second Finance Minister Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani told an audience of the investment community at a luncheon organised by the Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Bhd (MIDF) that the Government “can’t press charges on 1MDB without a full picture”.

He argued that "even the PAC (Public Accounts Committee) and AG (Auditor-General) were unable to specifically tell what went wrong”.

Dato’ Seri Johari must prove to Malaysians that he has not become a big liar defending a kleptocratic administration by demanding that the Cabinet declassify the Auditor-General’s Report immediately.

How can the Second Finance Minister expect Malaysians to believe him that the AG could not anything specifically wrong with 1MDB when the Najib administration has classified the AG’s Report under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) since its publication in February 2016?

Even the then Auditor-General, Tan Sri Ambrin Buang has emphasised that the intent of the OSA classification was only for the purpose of the PAC to complete its own report without unnecessary leaks.  He has stated clearly that there was no need for the AG’s Report to be classified after the PAC Report has been completed and left it to the discretion of the Government to declassify the document.

Can Dato’ Seri Johari tell us why the the AG’s Report remains classified?

Is it because even the ‘sanitised’ PAC Report itself has hinted at a whole lot of shenanigans discovered by the AG, if further exposed, would make life difficult for the Barisan Nasional Government?

For example, the PAC found that the 1MDB’s multi-billion dollar investments in Petrosaudi and other funds were carried out without any proper study or due diligence.  For that matter, the PAC and the AG found that 1MDB decided to invest a total of US$1 billion in a joint venture with Petrosaudi International Limited within just 8 days.

We have also since discovered with corroborating evidence from Bank Negara as well as court cases in the United States and Singapore, that US$700 million of that sum was siphoned to Good Star Limited, a company owned by the flamboyant Jho Low.

The PAC and the AG also found that 1MDB’s management executed multiple multi-billion dollar transactions without the approval of the 1MDB Board of Directors.  The PAC and AG also concluded that the top management had provided false information to the Board of Directors on multiple occassions.  Worse, the top management was found to have acted in defiance of decisions made by the Board of Directors.

The PAC and AG’s Reports were very specific in these allegations.

It true that the PAC and AG’s report were not sufficiently comprehensive. The PAC and AG could not investigate the US$731 million of funds originating from 1MDB which were deposited into the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s personal bank account because 1MDB refused to supply its overseas banking documents.

However, there are already sufficient instances of criminal wrong-doings and negligence by the top management highlighted by both the AG and the PAC in their reports.  This was also the reason why the PAC had recommended that the authorities carry out investigations against Datuk Shahrol Halmi and other management officers who were involved.

Hence the question that the Second Finance Minister must answer is – why haven’t investigations into the shenanigans in 1MDB, especially by Datuk Shahrol Halmi been completed after more than a year?  Why is Datuk Shahrol still a Director at the PEMANDU agency in the Prime Minister’s Department?

Is it because he is ‘untouchable’ and protected by the Prime Minister himself, so as to avoid even more damning truths surfacing on how tens of billions of ringgit were misappropriated by 1MDB, of which a substantial portion of it was channelled to Dato’ Seri Najib Razak?

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Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani must think that Malaysians are born yesterday to buy his excuse that the Government “can't press charges on 1MDB without a full picture”.

I was stunned by the Second Finance Minister, Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani’s remarks to the media that the Government “can’t press charges on 1MDB without a full picture”.  I had certainly expected better of him, as he was a known critic of 1MDB before his appointment as a Minister.

"The transfer of the money to the accounts and so on, it’s not that. That’s only half the story. If you want to charge people, you need the complete story," Johari said at a luncheon talk organised by Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Bhd which was reported by the Edge Financial Daily yesterday.

Of course, we need the complete story in order to charge any person for a crime.  However, the question is there must be a concerted effort to investigate the crime. 

From what we can see happening in Malaysia at this point of time, there is no attempt at all to investigate the crimes everyone can see which have taken place in Malaysia.

The United States Department of Justice (US DOJ) has clearly presented all documentary evidence of how funds amounting to more than US$5.6 billion have been siphoned from 1MDB and laundered overseas.  This included more than US$1 billion which have been siphoned to Good Star Limited which was owned by Jho Low, whose whereabouts are a mystery today.  The 1MDB management had persistently tried to hide this fact by lying that Good Star Limited was owned by 1MDB’s joint venture partner, Petrosaudi International Limited.

In Singapore, bankers have been sent to jail and bank licences have been withdrawn for facilitating the above same transactions.  This has included funds which has passed through to and from a Tanore Finance Corporation via its bank account with Falcon Private Bank to the personal bank account of Dato’ Seri Najib Razak.

And yet, despite the obvious and ease of accessing all the relevant evidence of grand corruption, the Second Finance Minister has the cheek to tell Malaysians that the Government “can’t press charges without the full picture”.

Dato’ Seri Johari even had the gall to dismiss the case in Singapore as not having involved Malaysians. "The governance issue happened in Singapore, not in Malaysia. And those characters are actually Singaporeans,” he said.

The Minister is obviously pretending very hard to be ignorant and stupid because the Singapore cases clearly named the parties who laundered the funds included Jho Low, his father Tan Sri Larry Low and other associates who were Malaysians.  Evidence including banking transactions were presented to the Court demonstrating how these funds stolen from 1MDB were misappropriated, including the amounts ending up in the Prime Minister’s bank account.

If the Minister is really clueless about the evidence and what took place in the US DOJ and Singapore Courts, I will be most happy to share the information and documents with the Minister.

However, please don’t tell half-truths to the Malaysian public that "even the PAC (Public Accounts Committee) and AG (auditor-general) were unable to specifically tell what went wrong.

The AG has discovered many wrongs which were cited in the AG’s Report on 1MDB which the Cabinet has decided to classify under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).  This was despite the fact that 1MDB had refused full cooperation with the AG by denying the AG access to crucial banking documents of its overseas subsidiaries.

But even what little revealed in the PAC Report was sufficient for the PAC to conclude massive wrong-doing on the part of the management.  The PAC has specifically demanded that Datuk Shahrol Halmi be investigated for his role in causing the billions of ringgit of losses to 1MDB and the Malaysian Government. 

It has been nearly a year since the report has been tabled in Parliament. Why hasn’t any action at all be taken against Datuk Shahrol Halmi?  In fact, why is Datuk Shahrol Halmi still a Director at the PEMANDU agency in the Prime Minister’s Department?

The reality is, not only has the Government made no effort into investigating the scandal, it is blocking all attempts to investigate the crime. For example, the Attorney-General abused his power by instructing the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) from further investigating the US$681 million or more which were discovered in the Prime Minister’s bank account. Subsequently, he rejected a request for cooperation by the Swiss Attorney-General to investigate the case.

Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani may not have been involved in the attempts to stall or stop the investigations, as he was only appointed a Minister in July last year.  However, he should not try to belittle the intelligence of ordinary Malaysians or take us for fools by claiming that the Government can’t press charges because it doesn’t have a “full picture”.

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Unlike DAP Parliamentary Leader Lim Kit Siang who believed that Dato’ Seri Salleh Keruak could be tutored by me on 1MDB, I believe that the Minister is untutorable because he can’t count

DAP Parliamentary Leader Lim Kit Siang asked me to tutor Dato’ Seri Salleh Keruak on 1MDB yesterday. This was in response to the Communicatioarns and Multimedia Minister’s incredible claim yesterday that the 1MDB scandal is only a puny RM1 million scandal compared to the BMF RM2.5 billion scandal.

I really would, if I could.

I now believe that the Minister is actually untutorable because he really cannot count nor understand simple accounting fundamentals.

This was after he insisted yesterday that he didn’t need any tutoring, that “1MDB's start-up capital was only RM1 million” and that debt-stricken company has “RM51 billion worth of assets to show for it plus ongoing development for the next couple of decades.”

Unfortunately, Dato’ Seri Salleh Keruak is spinning a story that even the CEO for 1MDB, Arul Kanda has stopped spinning since a year ago.  And it only goes to prove that he really doesn’t know what he is talking about.

Firstly, while the Government did inject only RM1 million in cash into 1MDB, that Government has provided direct and indirect guarantees to various lenders from whom 1MDB borrowed RM5.8 billion and US$7.73 billion (RM3.4bn), or a total of approximately RM39.8 billion.  The amounts, which have been verified by the Auditor-General as disclosed in the Public Accounts Committee Report on 1MDB included:

• RM5.0bn – 30-year bond guaranteed by the Federal Government (2009)
• RM0.8bn – 10-year loan from SOCSO guaranteed by the Federal Government (2010)
• US$3.5bn –10-year bond guaranteed by IPIC, Abu Dhabi but indemnified by MOF Inc (2012)
• US$3.0bn – 10-year bond backed by a “Letter of Support” signed by the Minister of Finance which effectively guaranteed the debt (2013)
• US$1.0bn – Advance by IPIC to 1MDB, indemnified by MOF Inc (2015)
• US$0.23j– Advance interest payments by IPIC on behalf of 1MDB, indemnified by MOF Inc (2015/6)

All the indemnities, direct and indirect guarantees above mean that should 1MDB fail to pay the above, then the Federal Government of Malaysia, funded by ordinary tax-payers are liable to pay for the RM39.8 billion of 1MDB borrowings.

The above does not yet include additional billions of borrowings by 1MDB which are not officially guaranteed by the Federal Government.  If Salleh Keruak doesn’t trust me or the Auditor-General with the above figures, he could perhaps request for tuition from Arul Kanda instead.

The question is, does 1MDB really have “RM51 billion worth of assets”, a figure Arul Kanda no longer cites and worse, a figure that 1MDB’s own auditors have publicly renounced, to pare down its debts?

Has Dato’ Seri Salleh Keruak completely forgotten the fact that much of the RM51 billion worth of assets have either been sold (at a loss) or worse, been proven to be misappropriated by the investigations published in the United States, Switzerland and Singapore?

The documents which have surfaced since the international scandal broke showed the following sums have been outrightly siphoned from 1MDB:

• US$1.83bn – Investment in or with Petrosaudi, which was mostly misappropriated to Good Star Limited, a company owned by Jho Low (2009-2011)
• US$1.367bn – Purported “deposit” paid a fraudulent Aabar set up in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) which has since been liquidated (2012)
• US$0.855bn – Additional “deposit” paid to the same fraudulent Aabar in 2014
• US$1.56bn – Investment by 1MDB “Global Investment” in fraudulent investment funds (2013)

The total of funds misappropriated and hence completely lost, amounts to US$5.612 billion or approximately RM24.7 billion!  These losses do not yet include losses arising from 1MDB various “real” business transactions like the acquisition of power plants and real estate, astronomical fees paid to Goldman Sachs etc.

And despite all of the above, Dato’ Seri Salleh Keruak still deemed 1MDB “a going concern”.  The Minister obviously do not understand what is the meaning of “a going concern”.  Does he not realise that 1MDB no longer has any income sources despite remaining tens of billions of ringgit in debt?  Even Deloitte has given up auditing the company, and 1MDB itself has failed to produce a single financial statement since March 2013.

I sincerely hope that Dato’ Seri Salleh Keruak is merely pretending to be stupid.  Because if he is really that stupid, then even Arul Kanda would give up on him.  In fact, the 1MDB CEO might just prefer that the Minister keeps his mouth shut to save himself, BN, 1MDB and the Government further outrageous embarrassment.

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Apa sebabnya Menteri Kewangan merahsiakan pengurus dana dan bank kustodian bagi pelaburan “unit” yang dikatakan bernilai US$940 juta?

Laporan Ketua Audit Negara dan Laporan Jawatankuasa Kira-kira Wang Negara yang dibentangkan di Dewan Rakyat pada bulan April yang lalu telah menyatakan bahawa nilai dan aset sejumlah US$7 bilion (RM28 bilion) tidak dapat dikesan atau disahkan.

Antaranya ialah pelaburan “unit” bernilai US$940 juta yang pada masa itu disimpan dalam bank kustodian, BSI Bank di Singapura.  Ketua Audit Negara tidak dapat mengesahkan kewujudan dan nilai semasa pelaburan tersebut sebab 1MDB telah gagal menyerahkan sebarang dokumen daripada BSI Bank kepadanya walaupun dokumen telah diminta selama setahun.

Aset “unit” yang dikatakan bernilai US$940 juta ini merupakan baki aset yang ditebus daripada pengurus dana di Cayman Islands pada bulan January 2015.

Sehingga hari ini, “unit” yang disimpan di BSI Bank ini merupakan misteri sebab kalau 1MDB begitu terdesak kekurangan aliran tunai, sehingga terpaksa menjual aset-aset penting negara seperti penjanakuasa bebas dan hartanah emas seperti Bandar Malaysia kepada pelabur asing, kenapa pelaburan “unit” ini tidak dijualkan dahulu untuk membiayai hutang gergasi 1MDB?

Keengganan 1MDB untuk menyampaikan sebarang matlumat dan dokumen kepada Ketua Audit Negara, dan keputusan Deloitte Malaysia untuk menarik balik pengakuan kepada audit 1MDB bagi tahun 2013 dan 2014 mengemukakan keraguan besar terhadap kewujudan “unit” yang dipegang dalam BSI Bank tersebut.

Kini, lesen perbankan BSI Bank telah dibatalkan oleh kerajaan Singapura kerana didapati bersalah dari segi pengubahan wang haram yang berkaitan dengan skandal 1MDB.  Saya telah bertanya kepada Menteri Kewangan, apa telah terjadi kepada “unit” tersebut.

Inilah jawapan yang saya telah terima daripada YB Menteri Kewangan pada Hari Khamis yang lalu.  Beliau menyebut bahawa “Ahli Lembaga Pengarah Brazen Sky Limited mengesahkan bahawa sebuah bank berlesen antarabangsa telah diberi mandate sebagai custodian bank untuk mengambilalih peranan BSI Bank, Singapura.  Ahli Lembaga Pengarah Brazen Sky Limited juga telah melaporkan bahawa tiada perubahan status di dalam nilai pelaburan tersebut.”

Ini merupakan jawapan yang cukup tidak bertanggungjawab daripada Menteri Kewangan.

Pertama sekali, kenapa Menteri tak sebut, siapakah pengurus dana dan custodian bank yang baru?  Apakah kerahsiaan yang diperlukan sehingga nama tidak boleh dimaklumkan kepada Dewan Rakyat?

Dulu bila Menteri Kewangan ditanya siapa pengurus dana pelaburan 1MDB di Cayman Islands, Menteri Kewangan sama-sama enggan menamakan nama pengurus dana walaupun beliau menegaskan bahawa ia dilaburkan dalam sebuah syarikat kewangan yang berlesen.

Kini, kita faham kenapa Menteri enggan menamakan syarikat. Ini adalah kerana syarikat pengurus dana pada masa 1MDB membuat pelaburan telah didapati oleh Ketua Audit Negara bahawa syarikat itu tanpa lesen.

Adakah keengganan Menteri Kewangan untuk menamakan pengurusan dana “unit” ini adalah kerana ia juga tidak berlesen seperti syarikat di Cayman Islands yang dulu?

Adakah Menteri Kewangan takut bahawa kalau dinamakan, bank kustodian yang baru ini juga akan dibatalkan lesen perbankan seperti apa yang terjadi kepada BSI Bank Singapura?

Kedua, jawapan Menteri Kewangan tidak boleh diterima kerana beliau bertanggungjawab untuk memastikan kesahihan segala jawapan yang diberikan oleh syarikat yang dikawalnya.  Menteri Kewangan tak boleh jawab bahawa Ahli Lembaga Pengarah berkata bahawa apa-apa.  Menteri Kewangan kena pasti bahawa nilai “unit” itu benar-benar bernilai US$940 juta!

It is not right for the Finance Minister to try to protect himself with deniability.

Adalah jelas bahawa kesemua kekurangan keterbukaan dalam jawapan Menteri Kewangan ini menunjukkan bahawa adanya udang disebalik batu yang disembunyikan daripada rakyat Malaysia.

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Are the new 1MDB Board of Directors led by Treasury-General Tan Sri Irwan Serigar going to turn a blind eye after the Sarawak Report exposed an outrageous round-tripping fraud involving US$1.22 billion?

The Sarawak Report first exposed the banking documents on 11 July which showed that 1MDB Global Investment Limited (1MDB GIL) transferred US$1.28 billion between September to November 2014 to the fraudulent Aabar Investment PJS Limited which was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands (“Aabar(BVI)”).

Yesterday, the Sarawak Report leaked more explosive sections from the Auditor-General’s Report relating to transactions between Brazen Sky Limited, another 1MDB subsidiary which held 1MDB’s controversial investments with a little-known Cayman Islands investment fund and 1MDB GIL.

The Sarawak Report concluded based on the additional information from the classified report, 1MDB clearly concocted a round-tripping exercise to give the impression that it has successfully redeemed cash from the Cayman Islands investment.  The fraudulent transactions were apparently so convincing that 1MDB’s auditors, Deloitte Malaysia happily signed off the company’s audited accounts.

Assuming the leaked copy of the AG’s Report is genuine, this is a massive allegation because for the first time hard evidence is shown to incriminate 1MDB officials as parties colluding with the owners of the fake Aabar (BVI) - Mohamed Al Husseiny and Khadem al Qubaisi.

Those incriminated include Datuk Shahrol Halmi, the former 1MDB CEO who was instrumental in 1MDB’s investment in the Cayman Islands fund; Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman, who was the CEO when the above round-tripping transactions took place and Arul Kanda Kandasamy, the current 1MDB President who is covering up the above shenanigans.

The exposé by Sarawak Report would hugely complicate 1MDB’s case in the arbitration proceedings brought by International Petroleum Investment Corporation (IPIC) against 1MDB involving US$6.5 billion.  IPIC is the parent company of Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investment PJS, both of whom have officially denied that Aabar (BVI) is ever related to their group.  1MDB’s knowing participation with Aabar (BVI) to defraud both IPIC and the Malaysian government would certainly compromise 1MDB’s claims that it was an innocent victim to IPIC’s then employees Al Husseiny and Al Qubaisi.

What is more immediately important however, is what is the new 1MDB Board of Directors going to do about this new information, now that it has been made public?

The previous Board of Directors led by Chairman Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin were forced to resign in shame after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) condemned them in its report on 1MDB to the Parliament.  These Directors failed miserably to carry out their fiduciary duties and responsibilities with any degree of diligence.

A recent exposé by Sarawak Report also showed that the previous board has blindly signed a retrospective approval of the US$1.2 billion payments by 1MDB GIL to Aabar (BVI) more than a year after these fraudulent transactions took place.  These good-for-nothing “cari makan” directors included Tan Sri Ismee Ismail, Tan Sri Ong Gim Huat, Ashwin Valiram, Datuk Shahrol Halmi and Arul Kanda.

The question now is, will the new Board of Directors appointed on 31 May 2016, led by Treasury-General, Tan Sri Irwan Serigar do a better and proper job?

Together with the other 2 new Board Members, Datuk Kamal Mohd Ali and Dato’ Norazman Ayub, are they going to demand answers to these new explosive allegations and act on them – including but not limited to filing police reports?  It is part of the directors’ roles and responsibilities to investigate cases of fraud and report them accordingly to ensure the interest of the Malaysian tax-payers are fully protected.

Or will they similarly turn a blind eye on indisputably, the single largest case of financial fraud in Malaysia’s history?

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Datuk Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi should look himself in the mirror first before asking Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to read the 106-page PAC Report on 1MDB

After former UMNO deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin and former senator Ezam Mohd Noor demanded that the Auditor-General’s (AG) Report on 1MDB be declassified to ensure accountability and transparency, UMNO Supreme Council Member Datuk Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi asked to read the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Report on the matter properly.

Puad said that if they had read it, they would not have asked that the report be declassified.  He said the conclusions of the auditor-general and PAC could be found on pages 103 to 106 and it was wrong for Muhyiddin to fault Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for classifying it when it was on the request of the auditor-general himself.

I had to laugh out loud when I read the comments made by Puad.

Firstly, the Auditor-General had only specifically requested for his report to be classified while it was being deliberated by the PAC.  He told the PAC that it is up to the PAC to publish the AG’s Report upon the completion of PAC’s own report.

The PAC Chairman, Datuk Hasan Arifin himself has explained to the media on March 7, that “the federal audit report on 1MDB will no longer be classified a state secret under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) once the PAC tables its findings on it in Parliament.”

Hence if Dato’ Seri Najib Razak and his Cabinet was not to be faulted for refusing to declassify the AG’s Report, then who is?

Secondly, it is once again ridiculous, just as was claimed by the Multimedia and Communications Minister, Datuk Seri Salleh Keruak, that there was no need for the AG’s Report to be made publicly accessible since the PAC Report has already been tabled.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in its proceedings, relies almost entirely on the findings of the AG Report to present its deliberations, conclusions and recommendations.  In fact, the PAC members understood that the AG’s Report was to be presented together with the the PAC Report to provide a complete picture with detailed facts and figures to the Parliament. 

Hence the PAC Report itself made extensive references to the findings AG’s Report without citing the details for the simple reason that the committee members were expecting the AG’s Report to be published together with the PAC Report.

In fact, PAC members from the government backbench and opposition concurred fully with the AG’s Report and never at any point of time, as recorded in the PAC Hansard, disagreed or rejected the findings.  Hence all the findings in the AG’s Report must be deemed factual and dealt with accordingly by the authorities.

Why is Datuk Dr Puad Zarkashi and the entire Barisan Nasional leadership so afraid of these facts within the AG’s Report to be published?

It is also a joke for Puad to claim that “the bits of the auditor-general's report can be taken randomly without fully knowing the context of the information,” giving “rise to various speculations.”

If Puad is so worried about these “bits” giving the wrong context, then surely, he must immediately advise his party President to declassify the full report immediately so as to prevent these “bits” from being leaked by parties like the Sarawak Report. 

Why is Puad so scared of declassifying the report?  Unless of course, he knows that the AG’s Report contains damning evidence of multi-billion dollar misappropriation and abuse of power which will expose all the lies and deceit expounded by 1MDB and the Prime Minister himself.

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Arul Kanda must explain why 1MDB Global Investment Limited paid US$1.279 billion to Aabar Investment PJS Limited when these entities had no business relationships

The Sarawak Report yesterday exposed another set of banking transaction documents separate from the classified Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB which showed that 1MDB Global Investment Limited (GIL) paid a total of US$1,279,347,500 between 12 September and 4 November 2014 to the British Virgin Islands (BVI) incorporated Aabar Investment PJS Limited.

1MDB GIL is a wholly-owned foreign subsidiary of 1MDB while Aabar (BVI) has been exposed as a fraudulent entity pretending to be the subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Corporation (IPIC).

The Sarawak Report rightly highlighted the failure of UBS Bank Singapore which received the money on behalf of Aabar (BVI) to properly ascertain the purpose, source and recipient of the funds.  The Monetary Authority of Singapore has already shut down another Swiss Bank, BSI Singapore in May for serious breaches of anti-money laundering requirements, poor management oversight of the bank’s operations, and gross misconduct by some of the bank’s staff.  The latest exposé hence raises the question as to whether UBS Singapore will be similarly investigated and have action taken against the Bank.

However, a bigger question mark arising from the above is why did 1MDB GIL make the US$1.279 billion payment to Aabar (BVI) in the first place?

1MDB GIL had borrowed US$3 billion in March 2013 purportedly to form a joint venture company with Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Invesmtent PJS to develop the Tun Razak Exchange in Kuala Lumpur.  However, the joint venture did not materialise.

If the joint venture is as good as dead, as testified by Arul Kanda himself to the Public Accounts Committee in January 2016, why did 1MDB GIL make the US$1.279 billion payment to Aabar (BVI) in 2014 which he did not disclose to the Committee?

Furthermore, according to 1MDB’s financial statements, 1MDB GIL was left with only US$1.56 billion invested “in various investment portfolios under the custody of a licensed financial institution”.  The rest of the funds have already been used up “for working capital and debt repayment purposes” by 31 March 2014.

Arul Kanda had also testified that the US$1.56 billion of 1MDB GIL investments were intact and will be possibly utilised as part of 1MDB’s rationalisation exercise.  However, if US$1.56 billion was indeed intact, then how did 1MDB GIL make the US$1.279 billion of cash payments to Aabar (BVI)?

The exposé of the latest documents by Sarawak Report has caught Arul Kanda with his pants down and proved that he has lied and withheld crucial information from the PAC.  This would be the real reason why Arul Kanda has refused to produce simple bank statements of 1MDB GIL to even the Auditor-General despite repeated requests to do so.

We call upon the local and international authorities to investigate all parties involved in the above transactions – Aabar Investment PJS Limited, 1MDB and UBS Bank for a international money laundering operation involving Malaysian tax-payers funds. 

Action must be taken against all parties who approved and abetted the above illicit transactions to ensure the integrity of our local and international financial system.

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If the leaked Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB by Sarawak Report is genuine, the Police must catch the crooks instead of going after whistleblowers!

On Saturday, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the police will probe whistleblower site Sarawak Report under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) for leaking the classified auditor-general’s report on 1MDB, but only after they verify that it was the genuine document.

“We’re also not sure if the document they published is genuine. So let me discuss with the auditor-general first to make sure whether the document is truly the auditor-general’s report, which has been classified as secret.  If it's true, then we will investigate under OSA. So let’s all calm down first.”

The IGP’s statement is shocking on several counts.  For one, Malaysians are shocked that after months since the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) tabled its report on 1MDB to Parliament demanding investigations on Datuk Shahrol Halmi and others involved in defrauding 1MDB, the Police have yet to gain access to the detailed Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB.

Has the Police been so lackadaisical in its investigations on 1MDB that it hasn’t already obtained a copy of the AG’s Report on 1MDB?  The IGP looked like a fool disclosing to Malaysians that he still has to “discuss with the AG first” to determine if what was leaked on Sarawak Report was indeed the AG’s Report.

Or has the Najib administration decided to maintain the AG’s Report as an OSA document so that even the Police will have difficulty accessing it?  Is this the real reason why the Cabinet has refused to declassify the report as it should have, so that the crooks behind 1MDB cannot be easily and properly investigated?

Regardless, if the leaked AG’s Report by Sarawak Report which exposed the billions defrauded and covered up by 1MDB officers is indeed genuine, Malaysians are shocked that the IGP isn’t at all interested in getting to the bottom of the scam and putting the crooks behind bars.

As the Chief of Malaysian police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar should be thoroughly scandalised and embarrassed by the single largest multi-billion dollar heist which has taken place under his nose over the past 5 years.  However, from his media response, he appeared completely indifferent to the great robbery but instead is more interested in a witch hunt to capture and charge the heroic whistleblower under the Official Secrets Act.

The IGP would do well to remember that police officers are sworn to protect Malaysians against criminals and not instead to cover up for crooks.  The Official Secrets Act, draconian that it may be, was designed to protect the national interest of the country, particularly against the leaking of security secrets to foreign agents. 

The AG’s Report on 1MDB is not a national security document.  It is a document which audited 1MDB for tens of billions of ringgit lost and has been exposed as such by the Sarawak Report.  It is hence a crucial evidentiary report against the masterminds behind the 1MDB scam and any attempt by the IGP to suppress the evidence will pervert the course of justice in Malaysia.

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Is Multimedia and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Keruak calling the findings of the Auditor-General is frivolous and hence should be disregarded?

It appears that Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s cheerleaders are busy lining up to play down the damning Auditor-General’s (AG) Report on 1MDB which has been exposed by the Sarawak Report.

Multimedia and Communications Minister, Datuk Seri Salleh Keruak is now telling Malaysians that the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB is not a “final” report and hence insinuates that the findings and conclusions presented should be ignored.

“In fact, the auditor-general’s report is not complete because it addresses just one aspect of 1MDB.  The complete report is the one from the PAC because it not only takes into account the auditor-general’s report but all the other information gathered as well,” Salleh wrote on his blog.

The biggest irony was when he argued that the Sarawak Report has intentionally “misled” the public with the AG’s Report. There is no bigger attempt to mislead the public than the Minister of Multimedia and Communications himself by playing down the findings of the AG’s Report.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in its proceedings, relies almost entirely on the findings of the AG Report to present its deliberations, conclusions and recommendations. In fact, the PAC members understood that the AG’s Report was to be presented together with the the PAC Report to provide a complete picture with detailed facts and figures to the Parliament. 

Hence the PAC Report itself made extensive references to the findings AG’s Report without citing the details for the simple reason that the PAC was expecting the AG’s Report to be published together with the PAC Report.

Therefore, the AG’s Report wasn’t merely “one aspect of 1MDB” as Salleh claimed, but an integral part of the PAC Report on 1MDB, without which the PAC Report would be incomplete.

The PAC Chairman himself has explained to the media on March 7, a month before the publication of the PAC Report that “the federal audit report on 1MDB will no longer be classified a state secret under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) once the PAC tables its findings on it in Parliament.”

The Members of the PAC, as well as Malaysians at large were hence shocked when Datuk Hasan Arifin autocratically rescinded what he promised and decided against publishing the AG’s Report, without any discussions with the Committee.

Datuk Seri Salleh Keruak must also accept the fact that there was nothing in the PAC Report which contradicted or negated the findings of the AG’s Report.  In fact, PAC members from the government backbench and opposition concurred fully with the AG’s Report and never at any point of time, as recorded in the PAC Hansard, disagreed or rejected the findings.

Hence all the findings in the AG’s Report must be deemed factual and dealt with accordingly by the authorities.  The question of the AG’s Report being “incomplete” does not arise at all.

Datuk Seri Salleh Keruak should stop becoming Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s Minister of Miscommunication by trivialising the AG’s Report and insulting the professionalism of Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang. Instead he should be scandalised by the findings of the Report and demand for heads to roll for all who were involved in the elaborate 1MDB scammed which cheated billions of dollars from Malaysian taxpayers, to protect the “good name” and credibility of the Government.

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