PAC members not required to take oath of secrecy

Public Accounts Committee chairman says oath of secrecy taken when they came on board as members of Parliament.

KUALA LUMPUR: Newly appointed Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Hasan Arifin said today its members were not required to take an oath of secrecy, contrary to a proposal made by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi recently.

Hasan explained this was so because PAC members had already taken an oath of secrecy when they were appointed members of Parliament.

“PAC members don’t have to take an oath of secrecy (to sit on PAC) because as a member of Parliament, they have already taken an oath of secrecy and the PAC is a task force in the Parliament,” he said today at a press conference.

Earlier, Zahid had proposed that MPs in the PAC take an oath of secrecy to prevent any leakage of information relating to its proceedings.

“I propose that the oath of secrecy be taken by PAC members to maintain confidentiality and secrecy,” he had said.

However, Zahid also said that the proposal needed to be referred to the legal adviser, to ascertain if the suggested move could be implemented.

The proposal by Zahid came after Tony Pua (DAP-Petaling Jaya Utara), a vocal critic of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), was accused of leaking confidential information pertaining to the investment company that is currently being investigated by the PAC, to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ)