KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 5 — An opposition lawmaker today questioned if accounting firm KPMG had done its due diligence in vetting 1 Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) financial statements, noting a discrepancy in the state-owned firm’s joint venture with Petrosaudi International Limited.

Petaling Jaya-Utara MP Tony Pua claimed that documents unearthed in a recent exposé on 1MDB showed that the company only signed an agreement to convert its 40 per cent stakeholding in joint venture entity 1MDB-Petrosaudi Limited to a US$1.2 billion Islamic loan on June 14, 2010, almost three months after the close of 1MDB’s financial year ending March 31.

“The conversion was reported in the 2010 financial year, but the murabaha financing agreement was only signed on June 14,” Pua claimed at a news conference.

“The audited report was signed off on October 4, claiming that the murabaha deal was signed on the last day of the financial year,” he added.

It was earlier reported the 1MDB-Petrosaudi deal fell through and was terminated on March 31, 2010, just six months after it was signed.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak ordered the Auditor-General to conduct an independent check on 1MDB’s accounts and prepare a report for Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee to further examine.

The state-owned firm yesterday also said it will comply with the audit.

1MDB came under criticism after a British paper, The Sunday Times in collaboration with whistleblower site Sarawak Report, ran an exposé last Sunday on Malaysian business magnate Low Taek Jho and his alleged links to 1MDB’s venture with oil exploration and production firm PetroSaudi International.

In the exposé, Sarawak Report accused the Malaysian tycoon popularly known as Jho Low, of siphoning off US$700 million (RM2.5 billion) from 1MDB and using PetroSaudi as a “front” in a 2009 joint-venture.