People should know the truth, Guan Eng says on altered 1MDB report

KUALA LUMPUR: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng today lent support to Auditor-General (A-G) Madinah Mohamad following her claim that the original report on 1MDB issued by the National Audit Department two years ago had been altered.

He said there was no harm in releasing the statement, which also alleged that orders to tamper with the report had come from former prime minister Najib Razak’s private secretary, saying the people had the right to know the truth.

However, he questioned how Malay daily Utusan had known of the matter as published in a report two days before Madinah’s statement.

“Before the A-G released the statement, I was shocked as to how Utusan knew this,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby.

“Rather than asking if it’s appropriate for the A-G to release such statements, why not ask Utusan if it’s appropriate to have published the matter much earlier.

“But what’s important here is that the people have the right to know what actually happened,” he added.

On Nov 24, Madinah had released a statement listing in chronological order all the times the report was allegedly altered.

She said the “unaltered” version of the report had been submitted to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission for further investigation.

Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin acknowledged a contradiction between Madinah’s statement and Najib’s previous explanation in Parliament regarding Low Taek Jho’s alleged involvement in 1MDB.

However, he urged people not to jump the gun on the matter, saying they should wait for further explanation from the A-G and others on the investigation.

If there was truth to the claims that alterations were made, he said, it would be a “disappointment”.

“It shouldn’t have happened,” he added. “The A-G’s report must be free and impartial. There cannot be instructions for it to be amended.

“As a former minister, there were many times when my ministry was investigated, audited and criticised. We have to accept this. It’s normal in the government,” he said.

The former youth and sports minister also said the previous Cabinet was never informed of the matter. - Mkini