Accountant wins bid to challenge MIA’s decision over 1MDB audit

 

High Court judge Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh said the Malaysian Institute of Accountants disciplinary committee’s decision was ‘tainted with procedural impropriety’. (Bloomberg pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has allowed a judicial review application by Deloitte PLT partner Ng Yee Hong to challenge a decision by the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) disciplinary committee (DC) not to strike out a complaint lodged by Damansara MP Tony Pua.

The Edge reported that judge Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh said the DC’s decision was “tainted with procedural impropriety” and must be quashed.

The judge, however, did not make an order on costs.

Pua filed a complaint with the MIA over an audit that Ng signed off in relation to the financial accounts of 1MDB between 2013 and 2014.

Ng filed the judicial review application based on the principle of res judicata — a legal doctrine meant to stop the relitigation of hearings between the same parties.

Pua made the complaint over 1MDB’s accounts on May 26, 2015, although an earlier complaint was made by Andrew Anand Solomon Devasahayam on March 31, 2015.

A decision had already been made by the DC over Devasahayam’s complaint, and Ng’s lawyers argued that the hearing of a similar complaint by Pua was tantamount to duplicity.

Ng had also filed another judicial review over a complaint lodged by Devasahayam, seeking to bar MIA from reporting the outcome and challenging the decision of the DC.

However, another High Court judge Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid dismissed Ng’s first judicial review on Dec 9.

Ng’s case is now pending in the Court of Appeal.

He was suspended for two years and fined by the MIA over the purported breach in the 1MDB reports.

The first and second complaints — including the one lodged by Pua — are over Ng’s signing off on the 2014 1MDB accounts and his failure to report money-laundering breaches to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM).

Deloitte took over the auditing of 1MDB’s accounts from KPMG in December 2013 — after KPMG was reportedly dismissed by the company following a difference of opinion on the fair value of 1MDB’s investment in Bridge Global SPC through Brazen Sky Ltd.

Deloitte then verified the accounts for the 2013 and 2014 financial years. However, the firm quit as 1MDB auditor in 2016.

1MDB subsequently said the audit reports issued by Deloitte in connection with its 2013 and 2014 financial statements should no longer be relied upon. - FMT