PAC and A-G to open fresh probe into 1MDB controversy

PARLIAMENT has agreed for the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the AuditorGeneral to open fresh investigations into the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) controversy. The motion to reopen investigations was tabled by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng and passed after heated debate.

“The probe by PAC will allow the Pekan MP (former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) to clear his name,” Lim said when tabling the motion in Dewan Rakyat.

The investigations, said Lim, would also allow the rakyat to know the truth behind 1MDB as well as bring closure to the issue.

Under the previous administration, the PAC – then headed by Rompin MP Datuk Hasan Ariffin – had cleared Najib of wrongdoing in the 1MDB issue.

Lim then accused Hasan, who was in the House then, of deliberately erasing vital information from the previous PAC report tabled in Parliament in 2016.

The information, he said, would have shed light on fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho’s (Jho Low) connection to 1MDB.

Debating the motion, Hasan admitted that he had decided to remove the information from the report a day before tabling on April 7, 2016 as this was from a confidential letter from Bank Negara.

An argument then ensued between Hasan and former PAC member Tony Pua (PH-Damansara). “Why did you alter the final PAC Report without informing us as PAC members?” Pua demanded, accusing Hasan of using his position to protect Najib.

Hasan retorted by calling for a Parliamentary Select Committee to be set up to clear his name, to which Pua agreed.

Later, Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof said he had no authority to rule that PAC proceedings be conducted as public hearings.

He said the proper manner would be for PAC to table its findings in Parliament once completed.

In his debate, Tan Sri Annuar Musa (BN-Ketereh) said he supported the motion, adding that the Pakatan Harapan government must be given ample space to find the truth behind the issue.