Guan Eng: Critics should question Utusan too for revealing 1MDB audit tampering claims

The question about the appropriateness of the auditor-general's statement on the alleged tampering of the National Audit Department's 1MDB report should be asked to Utusan Malaysiatoo, Lim Guan Eng said.

This is because the Malay daily had published an article about the matter much earlier, the finance minister said.

"I think we are talking about exposing the truth, the right to know the truth.

"Before the auditor-general (Madinah Mohamad) issued the statement (yesterday), I am shocked. How did Utusan know about it earlier?

"If you want to question if it was appropriate or not, why don't you ask whether it is appropriate to publish about the matter much earlier?" Lim said when met at the Parliament lobby this morning.

He said this in response to a reporter's question on whether it was appropriate for the government to instruct the auditor-general to issue a statement, which was sent to the media yesterday, in which Madinah said former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and others have tampered with the report.

Utusan Malaysia last Friday published a report on the alleged tampering, in which it quoted sources and named Najib and several others, including former auditor-general Ambrin Buang and former chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa.

Madinah's (photo) statement was only issued to the media by the department yesterday.

Lim said reporters should pose this question to Utusan, first before pointing it to the government.

He said that what was important for him was that the rakyat have the right to know what happened.

"I am not disputing (the report by Utusan). Just now a reporter here asked if it was appropriate or not to issue the statement, so I said that I do not want to be implicated in a controversy with Najib's lawyer.

"Because this is a court case. But our intention is to ensure that we speak the truth and let the people to know what is true.

"If you want to ask if it was appropriate, you have to ask Utusan too because they published the article two days earlier," Lim added. -Mkini