KUALA LUMPUR, April 11 — The public should be allowed to scrutinise the Auditor-General’s (A-G) report on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) said today when pressing for its declassification.
TI-M president Datuk Akhbar Satar said the report was prepared for public interest and that there was no reasonable or legal grounds to keep the document concealed using the Official Secrets Act 1972.
“The Federal Constitution and the Audit Act 1957 provide that the Auditor-General shall submit his reports to the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong, who shall cause them to be laid before the House of Representatives,” he said in a statement today
“This is constitutionally what is provided for and there should be no blockage or excuse preventing the rakyat from seeing the full A-G Report. There should be nothing to hide.”
The report was submitted to the Public Accounts Committee for its own investigation on 1MDB, but remains classified despite the parent paper being tabled in Parliament last week.
TI-M today also expressed concern over the lack of oversight by 1MDB’s board of directors as revealed in the PAC Report, adding that the scale of mismanagement at the state investment firm merited further investigation including the formation of a royal inquiry.
PAC released its much-anticipated final report on the troubled state investment arm last week after almost a year of proceedings, and the questioning of dozens of government and 1MDB officials, including its CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy.
Among its findings, PAC found that the 1MDB board of directors had failed to ensure the fund’s management complied with good accounting practises.
The PAC in its report also urged the authorities to investigate former 1MDB CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi over weaknesses in the company’s management.
