PAC NO 2: 2016 AUDITOR GENERALʼS REPORT ON 1MDB TAMPERED WITH
Certain individuals gave instructions to do this, says Perak MP
PUBLIC Accounts Committee deputy chairman Wong Kah Woh dropped a bombshell in the Dewan Rakyat when he said the Auditor General’s Report on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) was tampered with.
Wong (Pakatan Harapan-Ipoh Timur) claimed the report had been amended following the instruction of certain individuals.
He said the previous PAC members not only failed to re-open investigation after the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) civil suit, but also the original audit report was allegedly altered by people who had abused their powers.
“Fortunately, there was a change in government on May 9, hence everything can be revisited now,” he said while debating the Mid-Term Review of the 11th Malaysia Plan yesterday.
Wong said the public had lost its confidence in government agencies as they had covered up issues involving 1MDB.
On May 15, Auditor General Tan Sri Dr Madinah Mohamad said the 1MDB audit report was reclassified as an open document.
It was classified as “secret” on Jan 22, 2016, and was presented to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on March 4, 2016.
Besides the special committee on 1MDB, a task force headed by former attorney-general Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail was set up on May 21 to investigate 1MDB and recover assets abroad.
It was reported that former PAC chairman Datuk Hasan Ariffin said he decided to remove information from the PAC report a day before it was tabled in Parliament on April 7, 2016, as it was from a confidential letter from Bank Negara Malaysia.
PAC chairman Datuk Seri Ronald Kiandee said he could not confirm or deny Wong’s allegations.
He said he, like members of parliament, were bound by Standing Orders, which forbid them from publicly revealing what had transpired during PAC proceedings.
“PAC depends a lot on the Auditor General’s Report,” he said.
The PAC session has been sitting on 1MDB and Goods and Services Tax refund issues.
Last month, Kiandee told the New Straits Times he took the latest briefing by the Audit Department on 1MDB as more detailed compared with what he was previously informed on the matter.
“It is part of the bigger picture because in our minds, we want to investigate and want to know what happened.”