KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s senior aide had requested and received a copy of a draft of the Auditor-General’s final report on the audit of 1Malaysia Development Berhad, just several days before it was due to be presented to parliamentary watchdog Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in February 2016, the High Court heard today.

Tan Sri Ambrin Buang, who was the auditor-general then, said he had received a phone call from Najib’s then principal private secretary Tan Sri Shukry Mohd Salleh at 6pm on February 19, 2016 where the latter asked for a copy of the 1MDB audit’s final report.

Ambrin said he had then instructed the 1MDB audit team’s leader Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad to provide the requested copy to Shukry at his house in Precinct 10, Putrajaya at around 10am on February 20, 2016.

“I ordered Puan Saadatul Nafisah to give the draft of that report as it is a request from Tan Sri Shukry, and at that time I did not have any prejudice (prasangka) not to give it.

Advertisement

“To me, the giving of the final 1MDB audit report’s draft to Tan Sri Shukry at that time is not a big issue, as in practice the Audit Report prepared by NAD will then be distributed to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultans, Cabinet, the secretary-general of the relevant ministries, federal and state ministers,” he said during the joint trial of Najib and 1MDB former CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy.

Ambrin explained that the purpose of the National Audit Department’s (NAD) practice of distributing such audit reports was to enable the Cabinet, and the relevant secretary-general and ministers to be prepared to provide explanations in Parliament or in the state legislative assemblies before presentations to the PAC.

Ambrin confirmed today that he had also on February 20, 2016 instructed the 1MDB audit team’s coordinator Nor Salwani Muhammad to print out copies of the final 1MDB audit report, with all 60 copies fully printed out on February 21, 2016.

Advertisement

Out of the 60 copies, six copies were distributed out on February 22, 2016, namely to Najib himself, Shukry, Ambrin, then chief secretary to the government Tan Sri Ali Hamsa, the then Attorney General’s Chambers officer Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad, and Arul Kanda.

Ambrin today confirmed that this report was the one that NAD wanted to present to Parliament’s PAC in a presentation that was already scheduled on February 24, 2016.

But the High Court was told that Najib on February 22 expressed his dissatisfaction with the 1MDB audit report’s contents and asked for the removal of certain content, which then resulted in a February 24 meeting where Ambrin was pressured and subsequently agreed to remove four main items from the report.

This February 24 meeting was chaired by Ali, and was attended by others such as 1MDB’s Arul Kanda, Najib’s aide Tan Sri Shukry Mohd Salleh, Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad from the Attorney General’s Chambers and Finance Ministry officials. 

The report was then amended before being printed out again, while the NAD’s presentation to the PAC then eventually took place on the delayed dates of March 4 and 7, 2016 instead of the earlier scheduled February 24 date, the High Court heard today.

In this trial, Najib is accused of having misused his position as prime minister and the finance minister to order for changes to the 1MDB audit report before it was finalised and presented to the PAC in order to avoid civil or criminal action, while Arul Kanda is accused of having helped Najib commit the alleged offence.

Ambrin, who is the sixth prosecution witness, is expected to continue taking the witness stand tomorrow morning.