Pua: Rope in auditor-general, PAC to relook into 1MDB

Finance Minister II Johari Abdul Ghani should call auditor-general Madinah Mohamad and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to relook into the 1MDB scandal, DAP lawmaker Tony Pua said today. 

This is in light of new evidence, including on the state-owned fund's arbitration settlement with International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), as well as new information contained in the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) civil suit against 1MDB.

"If Johari is genuine in his desire to 'serve the nation' as professed in his March open letter to me, then I ask him to join me in calling for the auditor-general and PAC to re-look into the 1MDB scandal in the light of the latest developments," Pua said in a statement.

This is the perfect opportunity to look into the settlement, which had caused Malaysia to bear US47.01 billion to resolve 1MDB's US$3.5 billion bond borrowing, he added. 

"It should be noted that the PAC was told by 1MDB and its CEO Arul Kanda that all payments which have been made to IPIC would be used to offset the US$3.5 billion 1MDB bonds which were guaranteed by IPIC.

"The PAC also never made the recommendation for the Ministry of Finance to take over the liability for the bonds from IPIC – that would be just ridiculous," Pua said. 

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP also said Johari seemed to have forgotten that he is in office to serve the interests of Malaysians, and not that of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's alone. 

This is in response to Johari questioning who is Pua to ask him to resign after the latter put forward the challenged for "washing hands off" the 1MDB settlement fiasco. 

"If the decision of the prime minister is clearly detrimental to the interest of Malaysians, as the settlement showed, then it is certainly the duty of a finance minister to make things right.

"He, however is clearly more interested in blindly supporting Najib, by brushing off my allegation that Najib was conflicted in making the decision with regard to the settlement," Pua said. 

"I call upon Johari to access his conscience and determine facts of the matter, something which is fully within the powers of a finance minister. Of the US$3.51 billion which 1MDB had purportedly paid to IPIC, Najib has received US$30 million in in personal bank account in while his stepson, Riza Aziz received US$238 million via his company, Red Granite.

"The above facts which were outlined in DOJ suit to seize US$1 billion of laundered assets by funds originating from 1MDB has never been disputed by Najib himself, and if indeed true, the clearly puts the prime minister in a position of conflict when deciding on the settlement terms with IPIC."

Johari recently disclosed the existence of a letter by Registrar of Corporate Affairs of the British Virgin Islands that confirmed Aabar BVI as belonging to IPIC, after the PM made decision for 1MDB-IPIC settlement.

Meanwhile, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang noted that Johari had clearly dissociated and distanced himself from the 1MDB-IPIC settlement.

"As all this while, everyone, including Members of Parliament, were under the impression that Johari had become the key player in the whole 1MDB imbroglio, in fact the final 'gatekeeper' in the resolution of the 1MDB scandal.

"Has Johari himself forgotten all he had said in the past about his confidence about 1MDB’s legal position in the arbitration case, and bringing to book the culprits in the 1MDB scandal?

"He was supposed to be the final 'gatekeeper' for the resolution of the 1MDB scandal, and hopefully, clear Malaysia’s ignominy and infamy for being regarded worldwide as a 'global kleptocracy'," he said.-Mkini