Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), now in the process of investigating allegations of mismanagement and misappropriation around sovereign development fund 1MDB, has said it sees no need to call up Prime Minister Najib Razak or billionaire Jho Low to question them over the matter – for now.
PAC chairperson Nur Jazlin Mohamed said his committee will summon the current and former CEOs of 1MDB and quiz them over the state-owned fund’s operations, and will audit the auditors responsible for going over 1MDB’s books.
When asked by the press whether Najib or Jho Low would also be called up, The Malay Mail Online‘s Boo Su-Lyn reports that Nur Jazlan replied, “We don’t see the need at the moment.”
Low, whose full name is Low Taek Jho, disavowed any involvement in 1MDB management or operations in an interview with Euromoney in April. He insisted that most of the speculation on his alleged role in 1MDB stemmed from his earlier work with 1MDB’s conceptual predecessor, the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA).
Najib, who also serves as Finance Minister, has direct oversight over 1MDB, as the fund is fully owned by the Finance Ministry. He is also the chairperson of 1MDB’s board of advisers.
Jazlan said that the PAC today received testimony from Treasury secretary-general Irwan Serigar Abdullah and Economic Planning Unit (EPU) diector-general Rahmat Bivi Yusoff.
“This proves that the government, especially MOF (Finance Ministry) and the EPU, governs over 1MDB in a transparent, credible and accountable way by facing the Parliament’s PAC,” said Jazlan.
“On May 26, the 1MDB management that is currently led by CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy and former 1MDB CEO Datuk Shahrul Ibrahim Halmi, are scheduled to testify before this committee in the same proceedings,” he added.
The PAC also plans on calling up 1MDB’s auditors, namely the firms Ernst and Young, KPMG, and Deloitte to find out why 1MDB needed so many different parties to look over its books.
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