Raise grouses at Parliament, PAC members told

Chairman Hasan Arifin says since the PAC is set up by Parliament, any dissatisfaction among its members can be referred to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker.

KUALA LUMPUR: Members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) can raise any dissatisfaction they have at the coming PAC meeting or during Parliament sessions.

PAC chairman Hasan Arifin said PAC was a committee set up by Parliament, so if there was any dissatisfaction among its members, they could refer the matter to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker.

“As the PAC chairman who was appointed by the Dewan Rakyat, I am responsible for this committee, the Parliament and the people.

“It also includes the responsibility to ensure integrity in the PAC is upheld and not based on political interest, with credibility and not prejudiced.

“It is my responsibility to safeguard and maintain the PAC’s integrity, as well as not to be prejudicial,” he said in a statement here today.

He said whatever information received at the last minute that was considered secret and confidential, as well as information with intelligence status and not for public reporting, should not be entered into the PAC report.

If the said information is entered as part of the PAC report, it clearly can affect the PAC’s integrity and credibility as a committee under the Parliament, he added.

“I am fully responsible for the decision that was made and entrusted on me by Parliament,” he added.

He was referring to a statement by DAP Member of Parliament Tony Pua yesterday that two sentences in the PAC’s final report on 1Malaysia Development Berhad had been deleted, one on the discussion between National Audit Department officers and members of the PAC.

The other was on the discussions the PAC members had with government officers involved in preparing the 1MDB report.

– BERNAMA