KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — The Auditor-General must disclose the terms of the audit Putrajaya ordered on 1 Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) to ensure full disclosure of the state-owned investor’s finances, PKR’s Rafizi Ramli said today.
The PKR secretary-general said an audit was only as effective as its scope and terms, and that limiting these would prevent investigators from discovering possible irregularities in the accounts of 1MDB.
“Therefore, I urge that the (audit’s) scope and terms be tabled in the coming parliamentary session so that it will be truly extensive and have transparency as its goal,” he said in a statement today.
He said the audit should identify the financial beneficiaries of all 1MDB funds, determine if all its investments meet good governance standards, ensure all investments and expenditure are justified by returns, identify the financial risk 1MDB’s debt places on the local banking sector, and identify all individuals responsible for any wrongdoing or mismanagement.
Failure to address any of the issues he listed above would prevent a clear answer to the allegations surrounding the state-owned firm, he added.
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.
