1MDB trio cannot escape, says Pua

'Arul and ex-CEOs must appear before the PAC next week.'

KUALA LUMPUR: 1MDB President Arul Kandasamy and the company’s former CEOs, Shahrol Halmi and Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman, must appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) next week, a member of the panel, Tony Pua, said today.

Pua was responding to a statement by Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Ronald Kiandee that the Speaker’s permission was needed for the PAC to continue with its hearing.

“The standing orders are clear,” Pua said. “The PAC is legally constituted and there is no provision to halt it.”

Shahrol is scheduled to appear before the panel on Tuesday, Arul on Wednesday and Hazem on Thursday.

Doubts about the PAC’s ability to proceed with the hearing emerged with Tuesday’s cabinet reshuffle, which saw four of the panel’s members, including its chairman, becoming deputy ministers. Members of the executive branch of government cannot sit in the PAC.

However, Pua pointed out that a previous PAC member’s appointment as deputy minister did not disrupt the panel’s proceedings during its first term from 2008 to 2012. The PAC continued with its work when Chua Tee Yong vacated his position to become a deputy minister.

“Hence it is completely wrong to say that any proceeding must stop when a member of the PAC resigns or is promoted as a minister,” he said.

“If the chairman or vice-chairman is absent for whatever reason, a new chairman is to be appointed.”

In his statement, Kiandee said the Speaker’s approval was needed because the current composition of the committee no longer reflected the power balance in Parliament.