KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak must apologise and retract his claims in Parliament, after alleging not a single sen in public funds was used by the government to repay the principal amount of 1MDB debt, said DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng.
The Bagan MP said that as a former finance minister, he understands Najib’s claim, that the 1MDB debt had not damaged the country’s finances, as being untrue as he missed out on the part that the monies returned to Malaysia by firms involved in the scandal were in the form of penalties.
“Najib did not admit that these funds were returned to Malaysia in the form of penalties for defrauding 1MDB monies with Goldman Sachs paying back US$3.9 billion for their nefarious role and wrongdoing in their issuance of a US$6.5 billion bond for 1MDB, which was misappropriated.
“Clearly all these payments are insufficient to pay back the total amount of principal and interest for 1MDB debts amounting RM52 billion, of which the principal amount is RM32 billion,” he said in a statement.
Lim noted that current Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz agreed with him on this, adding that they flat out rejected Najib’s “fantasy that the people do not have to pay or bear the 1MDB debts”.
Earlier today, Tengku Zafrul in Parliament called Najib’s claim that Putrajaya has yet to pay “a single sen” of 1MDB’s principal debt baseless.
He explained that the federal government will begin servicing the principal debt once some of the bonds issued by the sovereign fund and its subsidiaries mature by May this year. The debt servicing will continue to be paid until 2039.
He said the first tranche of payments will start May 11, 2022, for bonds issued under 1MDB Energy Limited and the 1MDB Energy (Langat) worth RM7.3 billion.
Lim added in his statement that the government has already repaid RM13.3 billion of 1MDB’s debt so far.
Yesterday, Najib argued in Parliament that not a single sen of public funds has been used by the government to repay the principal amount of 1MDB debts
He said this is because various entities, including Goldman Sachs, audit firms KPMG and Deloitte, Ambank and the US Department of Justice (DoJ) had returned 1MDB funds totalling RM23 billion to Malaysia.
