February date for final 1MDB audit report, says news portal

The full audit report on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) will only be ready by February. – AFP pic, December 18, 2015.

The long-awaited full audit report on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) will only be ready by February, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) member Tony Pua was reported saying today.

According to Malaysiakini, Pua (pic, right) said the report, originally expected to be tabled before PAC yesterday, was delayed because the auditor-general had yet to receive certain documents. 

"We were told they (National Audit Department) have just received a few documents, but are yet to get the other documents promised to them," Pua was quoted as saying when met outside Parliament after today's PAC briefing.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP said PAC was not told what documents were still needed.

"We were told the report will be ready by February," the news portal reporting him saying.

PAC resumed its hearing on 1MDB today with the firm's president, Arul Kanda Kandasamy, but the media was barred from entering Parliament, reportedly on the orders of PAC chairman Datuk Hasan Ariffin.

A policeman on duty at the Parliament's gates told The Malaysian Insider that he had received instructions from the highest authority not to allow journalists into the premise.

Media personnel were forced to wait by the road outside the gates in an attempt to door-stop Arul Kanda and PAC members for information about today's hearing.

Arul Kanda is testifying before PAC for the second time, following five hours of questioning on December 1.

Hasan, who became PAC chief this year, has decided to no longer brief the press after the panel’s meeting, a departure from usual practice.

PAC was to have received the auditor-general’s final report on 1MDB but this was delayed, with Hassan saying it had to be "updated".

- TMI