The damning Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Report on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) was tabled in Parliament yesterday.
Among the lengthy list of transgressions by 1MDB, the PAC established that:
The sums of US$700 million and US$330 million have been misappropriated to Good Star Limited, a company unrelated to the purported 1MDB-Petrosaudi joint venture in 2009 and 2011. (7.3.4-7.3.5)
US$3.51 billion has been paid to a British Virgin Islands (BVI) incorporated Aabar Investment PJS Limited “Aabar (BVI)” in the form of collaterals, options termination compensation and further unexplained “top-up security” payments despite obvious doubts over who owns Aabar (BVI).
The Auditor-General (AG) was also unable to verify the actual transactions above because 1MDB has refused to provide the bank statements of its overseas bank accounts and foreign subsidiaries. (7.3.9 – 7.3.13)
As a result of 1MDB’s refusal to cooperate, the AG was also unable to ascertain the purported existence and value of the so-called US$940 million worth of “units” parked at the Swiss Bank branch of BSI Bank in Singapore. (7.3.15)
Instead of answering the respective findings of the Report, 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) thought it more appropriate to train its guns on the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). 1MDB claimed that it was entirely inaccurate of WSJ to claim in its article that the PAC had found that “billions of dollars” had gone missing from 1MDB, and had recommended a “criminal investigation” on the fund’s senior management.
Why is 1MDB so ruffled with the claim by WSJ that “billions of dollars” were “found missing” based on the PAC Report?
Indeed, the PAC Report never made the specific claim that the above billions were “missing” officially. However, the fact of the matter is these billions are unaccounted for and cannot be verified, as confirmed by the AG himself.
Hence, if 1MDB is so offended by the missing billions description by WSJ, why didn’t the Company show where these monies were with its bank statements and their respective transaction details to the AG since May 2015?
In fact, 1MDB’s recalcitrance and utter contempt for the Auditor-General over the above, despite countless reminders by the AG and the PAC, only goes to reinforce the global suspicions that the billions of dollars have indeed gone missing.
The refusal by 1MDB and its management to cooperate over the above unaccounted billions of dollars left the PAC with no choice but to recommend investigations by the relevant authorities. These “relevant authorities” would certainly include the Royal Malaysia Police to track possible criminal elements in the flow of funds by 1MDB overseas.
1MDB should stop trying to play the victim of a non-existent global malicious conspiracy against the company. 1MDB has had every opportunity to clear its name over the past year and has now been proven to have failed to do so.
The real victims are the Malaysian people whose trust in 1MDB, its management and directors, have been betrayed by half-truths, lies, deceit and cover-ups.
Dato’ Seri Najib Razak needs to take full responsibility for RM55 billion 1MDB debacle and take concrete to ensure full compliance by the company
The spin masters in the Prime Minister’s Department are operating in full swing to deflect any blame on Dato’ Seri Najib Razak over the damning Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Report which has been tabled yesterday on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
Dato’ Seri Azalina Othman went so far as to say that the report also confirmed that the Prime Minister did not commit any offences or contribute to any criminal offences, hence proved that all allegations made against him were baseless.
Worst, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak himself attempted to make light of the highly incriminating PAC Report by focusing on the irrelevant – that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad made a mistake by claiming that “RM42 billion is missing”. It is irrelevant because the point of the PAC Report wasn’t to determine “RM42 billion was missing” but how billions of ringgit might have been improperly siphoned.
Dato’ Seri Najib Razak must be the most irresponsible Finance Minister in history who is more interested in political rhetoric than the scores of misdeeds outlined in the PAC as well as the Auditor-General’s Report. Just because one man cited the wrong figure for the amounts of funds which were not accounted for, does not mean that there were no billions of dollars which went missing.
We have already established that at least US$5.5 billion of 1MDB’s cash and assets could not be verified by the Attorney-General after a year of investigations.
Hence, at the very least, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak who is also the Finance Minister must be held to be ministerially accountable as 1MDB is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ministry of Finance (MoF). In fact, the debt which has been accumulated by 1MDB amounting to RM55 billion as at October 2015 is even larger that the entire RM32.3 billion budget for the Ministry of Finance in 2016!
The degree of ministerial accountability is even higher, given the specific provisions of 1MDB’s Memorandum and Articles of Association (M&A) which required the explicit written endorsement of the Prime Minister for every single substantial transaction carried out by 1MDB. Hence the Prime Minister had personally signed all written resolutions approving its investments in the failed US$1.83 billion Petrosaudi joint venture, the borrowing of US$6.5 billion of bonds, the multi-billion ringgit acquisition of the power plants and real estate as well as the sacking of both external auditors, Ernst & Young and KPMG.
Worse, the M&A of 1MDB explicitly forbids the appointment of any MoF officials in the company, which could have acted as an additional check and balance on the rogue management. The lack of oversight at the level of the Finance Ministry, as testified by the Treasury-General, Tan Sri Irwan Serigar himself to the PAC, only further increases the culpability of the Prime Minister in the entire scandal.
If the Prime Minister hadn’t personally approved these resolutions, then none of the shenanigans cited by the AG could have taken place. Hence, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak was either very stupid and reckless to sign these resolutions without proper consideration or he was very much part and parcel of the 1MDB scam. Either way, the Prime Minister must take responsibility and be held accountable.
Finally, and most importantly, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak has failed to direct 1MDB to cooperate with the AG and the PAC by providing all necessary financial statements, particularly its banking records and statements overseas. Given that the allegations of impropriety by the Prime Minister, especially over the US$681 million “donation” scandal are all transacted overseas, there was no way for the AG or the PAC to clear the Prime Minister of these allegations.
Hence all attempts by the BN Ministers to exonerate Dato’ Seri Najib Razak of any culpability in the RM55 billion 1MDB financial scandal are well off the mark. If Dato’ Seri Najib Razak wants to remove any suspicions of links between 1MDB’s overseas funds and himself, then he must immediately reprimand 1MDB and direct 1MDB to hand over all its banking records overseas to the PAC and AG for further scrutiny.
If not, then Dato’ Seri Najib Razak will be further tainted with the perception that he is afraid of the truth being discovered and he has much to hide.