PAC members claim chairman 'edited' 1MDB final report without approval
Azyyati Ahmad
April 19, 2016 08:27 MYT
April 19, 2016 08:27 MYT
In the press conference at the National Assembly, Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara, Tony Pua alleged that Hasan 'cut' one verse in the report regarding the owner of the Good Star Limited. - Foto Astro AWANI/Shahir Omar
Public Accounts Committee (PAC) opposition members on Tuesday claimed that the committee's chairman, Datuk Hasan Arifin edited the PAC report on the debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) without the committee's approval.
In the press conference at the Dewan Negara, Petaling Jaya Utara MP, Tony Pua alleged that Hasan conveniently ''omitted' a verse in the report concerning the owner of Good Star Limited.
Pua said the final draft of the eport, which was approved by all PAC members, differed from the final report published on April 4.
"What was stated on page 25 of the report merely mentioned former 1MDB chief executive officer Datuk Shahrol Halmi had provided documents confirming Good Star Ltd is a subsidiary of Petrosaudi Group, but the following sentence had been omitted.
“However, the PAC chairman had cut off a subsequent sentence which was agreed upon in the meeting, that ‘Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) was voluntarily informed by the country's authorities that Good Star Limited is a company owned by an individual with no links to the PetroSaudi Group’ - - this was important to prove that misappropriation of the RM700 million at that time had already happened," said Pua.
He said Hasan's actions have not been discussed formally with the committee’s member.
"Hasan's alleged action to leave out what is deemed to be a crucial sentence in the PAC report is an outright violation of the PAC's Meeting Orders and has now provoked suspicion on whether the parliamentary panel head intends to close the 1MDB case,” Pua said.
Pua jointly made the statement with PAC deputy chairman Tan Seng Giaw, Datuk Kamarul Baharin, William Leong and Datuk Takiyudin Hassan.
They too have urged Hasan to amend the report immediately via the paper amendment to ther Parliament.
They also wanted the PAC prosiding Hansard that record of all questions, answers, and the presentation of witnesses by the committee to be published and presented to Parliament.
Pua said, the official report of prosidings of the House recorded in verbatim order (Hansard) had detailed out the discussions of Auditor-General Report with the National Audit Department, as well as discussions between the PAC, its members and the government officials tasked to prepare the PAC reports were crucial to get a clearer overview of the 1MDB probe.