Opposition raises 11 queries on 1MDB for Najib

Prime Minister and Finance Minister urged not to use a legal suit to evade responsibility and accountability on “the scandal”.

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister and Finance Minister Najib Abdul Razak has been urged to make a ministerial statement on the troubled 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and not evade responsibility and accountability on the issue by threatening Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua with a legal suit to silence him.

Pua has since made the 1MDB issue his constituency.

“The Prime Minister should not set a bad example to other Ministers,” said DAP’s elder statesman Lim Kit Siang in a statement. “He has to answer 11 teeming questions on the multi-billion ringgit 1MDB scandal.”

He was commenting on Pua being served on Fri with a letter of demand for allegedly defaming Najib in a YouTube video, Tony Pua: Najib is creating the biggest scandal ever in the history of Malaysia.

Lim listed the 11 questions covering various aspects of 1MDB and its subsidiaries raised by the Opposition in Parliament and outside.

Briefly, the issue of guarantees and letters of support from the Federal Government for 1MDB and their omission from the national debts; surrender of legal jurisdiction to the Courts of London in the event of a dispute or default; payment of “certain commissions, fees and expenses” to raise loans; diversions of loans taken by subsidiaries to repay debts incurred by 1MDB; and highly irregular “Use of Proceeds” of a US$3 billion bond

Among other issues: acceptance of a corporate loan guarantee by International Petroleum Investment Corporation (IPIC) of Abu Dhabi on such onerous terms; the conversion of a US$1 billion investment in a joint-venture with PetroSaudi in 2009, a company with no track record and dubious origins, into a loan subsequently increased to US$1.7 billion; a US$2.32 billion investment in Bridge Capital Partners in Cayman Islands, an unknown fund manager of questionable origins and no track record; and the Finance Ministry’s acquisition of SRC International Sdn Bhd, a 1MDB subsidiary, after it received a RM4 billion loan from Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pesara (KWAP) guaranteed by the Federal Government.

Elsewhere, the issues are overpayment in billions for 1MDB’s acquisition of Genting Sanyen and Tanjong Energy, both power assets; the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water reversing its policy of open tenders for new power plants to directly and hastily award a 50MW solar-power plant and a 2,000MW gas-turbine power plant to 1MDB before even the tariffs were agreed upon; and the Federal Government’s sale of super-prime land to 1MDB at heavily discounted prices to allow the company to “revalue” its assets;

Finally, the queries relate to international auditing firms, Ernst & Young and KPMG, quitting their lucrative work with 1MDB; and the failure by 1MDB subsidiaries to submit their financial statements to the Companies Commission.

“Although the current budget parliamentary meeting is to end on Thurs 27 Nov, 2014, it will be the height of irresponsibility for Najib as Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Chairman, 1MDB Board of Advisers, to evade and avoid accountability for the numerous questions that have been raised over the 1MDB scandal,” warned Lim in his statement.

“These have not been satisfactorily explained by the Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan.”

He urged Najib to arrange for a full debate in Parliament to be held on his Ministerial Statement on 1MDB.

Those in the know are surprised by the wealth of details on the 1MDB which the DAP has at its disposal.

The fingers of suspicion are being pointed at Umno.

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, even when he was Deputy Prime Minister, had often been accused of taking a leaf from politics in Tamil Nadu, India, and anonymously feeding “damaging” information to the DAP to raise in Parliament and in public.

Mahathir himself has since alleged that 1MDB paid above market prices in their purchase of power plants from Genting and Ananda Krishnan; that it has a debt of around RM38 billion after just five years in operation; that the money for 1MDB is not from the country’s surpluses but billions of ringgit of debt that has added to the already high national debt; and that the government will not have the ability to help repay the 1MDB debt as it is already facing a deficit budget problem.