KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — Every federal minister is now answerable to the allegations against 1 Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) after the Cabinet yesterday cleared the state investor of “any wrongdoing”, DAP’s Lim Kit Siang said today.

When making the assertion, the DAP parliamentary leader asked the 35 federal ministers if they understood the consequences of the Cabinet decision to exonerate the firm of any impropriety ahead of a federal audit of its accounts.

He further asked if they were supplied with detailed Cabinet papers and other documents to help them come to the conclusion that nothing improper had occurred with 1MDB’s finances over the past six years.

“Be that as it may, after yesterday’s Cabinet meeting which issued the 1MDB a clean bill of health and integrity, all the 35 Ministers in the Najib Cabinet are now individually and collectively implicated in all the going-ons in 1MDB and cannot plead ignorance as an excuse,” he said in a statement today.

The Gelang Patah MP then challenged Putrajaya to allow open debate on 1MDB during the parliamentary session beginning next week in order to allow the ministers who have been fully briefed of the firm’s accounts to defend the state investor.

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.

The series of reports cited details purportedly gleaned from thousands of leaked documents and emails involving 1MDB.

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.

Petrosaudi has denied the claim.

In The Sunday Times report, Putrajaya suggested the possibility of “political motivation” behind criticism of 1MDB, but pledged action in accordance with Malaysian law should there be any proof to back allegations of wrongdoing in the firm’s operations.