Show 1MDB statements to combat public distrust, says DAP

1MDB sits on a RM42 billion loan and is struggling to repay its debts and interests. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, May 22, 2015.

Putrajaya should now demand account statements from debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and disclose the information to the public to remedy its incompetence in mistaking cash for assets held in BSI Bank in Singapore, DAP said today.

The party's national publicity secretary Tony Pua said the explanation by Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah that the error over a mistaken "impression" as to what form 1MDB's repatriated investments from the Cayman Islands were in, was "lame, unbelievable and inexcusable".

Pua said this latest flap showed a repeated pattern of "half-truths, misleading statements and outright lies" over 1MDB's debt problem and had resulted in complete distrust for Barisan Nasional ministers and 1MDB senior executives.

"The only way for them to regain any semblance of credibility is to publish the actual BSI Bank statement reflecting these “units” of “assets” that are allegedly worth US$1.103 billion.

"Surely the Ministers of Finance can demand the statement from 1MDB and make available the information to the Malaysian public?  Or would they rather hide the information because the statements will reflect worthless 'units' of 'assets'?" Pua said in a statement today.

The Petaling Jaya MP was referring to Husni's explanation to reporters on the sidelines of the Parliament sitting yesterday, where he said that 1MDB's repatriated investment was in the form of "units" and not cash.

“There’s a mistake… mistake in the sense that, the impression (given by 1MDB) when they said they have redeemed (the funds) and saved (them) in the Singapore bank (Singapore BSI)... so the impression is that there’s cash, (but) actually that is a saving,” Ahmad Husni said yesterday.

“That (the redemption) is (in) unit... that’s what it is… in unit, and then, that is being backed sovereign wealth funds,” Husni had said.

Husni's remarks follows Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's answer to Pua in a parliamentary written reply on Tuesday, that there was no cash redeemed from the Caymans' investment, but whatever was in BSI Bank was in the form of assets.

But in March, Najib had said that the remaining US$1.103 billion (RM4.08 billion) of 1MDB’s investment funds – in cash – had been transferred to its account in BSI Bank.

"The remaining US$1.103 billion of 1MDB's investment funds managed by the Cayman Monetary Authority has been redeemed in cash and is kept in US currency by the BSI Bank Limited Singapore (BSI Singapore)," Najib said in a written reply to a question raised by Pua  in the Dewan Rakyat on March 10.

Najib is also finance minister and chairman of 1MDB's advisory board.

1MDB president Arul Kanda Kandasamy, in February, had also assured that the cash was in the state investment vehicle's account in BSI and were meant to repay the interest for 1MDB's US dollar denominated bonds.

"The cash is in our accounts and in US dollars. I can assure you... I have seen the statements," he was quoted as saying in an interview with Singapore's Business Times.

DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua questions what it was that 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda had seen in the BSI Bank statement. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, May 22, 2015.Today, Pua questions what exactly Arul Kanda had seen, and whether Husni as a finance minister understood the information he was handling.

"How can anyone one given the responsibility of managing US$1.1 billion in a bank account make such an audacious error of mistaking assets for cash?

"Who is to blame for such a massive mistake? Is it the MoF (Ministry of Finance) which misunderstood 1MDB, or was it 1MDB which provided MoF with the wrong information?" Pua said.

He added that if the finance ministers and their deputies could not provide "simple accurate information" on whether the repatriated investment was in cash or assets, or explain what the "units" of the assets were, they too, should be sacked.

Pua said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was justified in calling for the entire 1MDB board to be sacked because of the "sheer dishonesty, the scale of the cover up and the magnitude of incompetence" of those involved in the firm.

Muhyiddin, in a leaked video of his speech at a closed-door Umno training event, had said the 1MDB board should be sacked and that no company in the world would tolerate such a heavy amount of debt. Questioned about his remarks later, Muhyiddin told reporters he stood by what he said, adding that it was just advice to Najib.

- TMI