PAC ready to probe 1MDB
KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is prepared to investigate the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal if there is any request for it, said its chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee.
“The PAC was set up by Parliament and we too are responsible to the Parliament and the PAC report will be returned to Parliament. If there is such a motion, the PAC will certainly investigate,” he said after a PAC meeting at the Parliament building yesterday.
Asked whether former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak would be called up during the proceedings on 1MDB, Kiandee said the matter was too early to decide because the PAC must be guided by the terms of reference (TOR) which would be set up and the investigation strategy beforehand.
“Definitely we will ask the Auditor-General first to brief us on what was the extent of investigation done before this. Because we are the new committee,” he said.
He explained that his focus now was to study the Auditor-General’s Report and two major issues that he declined to disclose, and all these matters would take a long time to resolve.
He said he was also prepared to investigate the issue on the disappearance of the tax inputs for the collection of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) amounting to RM18 billion which was alleged by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng to have been ‘robbed’ by the previous government.
Previously, Kiandee was reported to have said that the disappearance of the demand fund for the GST tax inputs could be discussed according to the Standing Order 77(1) a and d.
Meanwhile, on the status of the nomination of Parit Sulong Member of Parliament Datuk Dr Noraini Ahmad as a committee member of the check and balance body to the government, Kiandee said it was decided by the Selection Committee chaired by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof.
Meanwhile, Najib said he would not object to the proposed reopening of the 1MDB investigation by PAC as “the truth should be known”.
“I have nothing to object because we want to learn the truth. So, now if PAC wants to reopen (the) 1MDB (probe), it is their right but don’t go on a fault-finding mode,” Najib told reporters at the Parliament lobby yesterday.
It was reported that Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had earlier yesterday filed a motion in Parliament for the Auditor General (AG) and PAC to reopen a detailed investigation on 1MDB. It was reported that Lim filed the motion via an Order Paper. Bernama