‘1MDB is the most investigated body in M’sia’

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak says the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) report on 1MDB did not implicate him with any wrongdoing.

The Prime Minister said the PAC was also made up of Opposition parliamentarians such as Dr Tan Seng Giaw and Tony Pua.

He said 1MDB was also investigated by Bank Negara, the police and the Auditor-General owing to his instructions.

“So much that it has become the most investigated body in Malaysia,” he said in reply to questions by Datuk Seri Idris Jala, who is the Prime Minister’s National Transformation Programme (NTP) adviser, at the launch of the NTP 2017 Report here last night.

Jala had earlier pointed out that the 1MDB report had been uploaded onto the Internet and that he had read the entire report, confirming that there was nothing to pin down the Prime Minister.

Najib said nowhere in the report did it say that he had stolen money or did anything wrong.

“Nowhere in the report did it say that the donation from the Saudi government was 1MDB money,” said Najib of the 106-page report.

The Prime Minister said 1MDB faced problems when the attempt to publicly list Edra Energy Sdn Bhd failed.

“The IPO (initial public offering) couldn’t proceed and from there we faced cash flow problems into 1MDB.

Najib said the Government had taken positive measures to rationalise 1MDB such as the Tun Razak Exchange development, The Exchange 106 set to be completed in August and the development of an area for a retail outlet by Lendlease.

“This will be an iconic development soon. We also have Bandar Malaysia, which will be the terminal for the High Speed Rail and two MRT stations that are being developed.

“These assets will be monetised and we will use this to settle the 1MDB debts and according to our calculations, there is a chance that we could profit from this rationalisation process,” the Prime Minister said.

Najib also denied claims that the Government had a lot of debt and was facing bankruptcy, calling these claims a “hogwash”.

He said the peak of the country’s debt was in 1986 when it was 103.4% of the GDP.

Now, he said, the debt stood at 50.8% of the GDP.

As for the GST, Najib said it was incorrect to say that it was the cause of price increases.

He said the Government wanted to implement GST since 1984, but “there was no political courage to do so”.

“It is a right decision but at a political cost. We are willing to bear the political cost because it is the right thing to do.

“The GST will benefit the country and people in the long run,” Najib said.