Entire Cabinet must be held responsible for 1MDB, BNBBC chief says
(Malay Mail Online) – The entire Cabinet must be held responsible over any element of impropriety in deals involving 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club (BNBBC) chairman Tan Sri Shahrir Samad said today.
The Umno MP said that it was highly unlikely that 1MDB had not been discussed in Cabinet meetings, as a decision had already been made in ordering the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Auditor-General to investigate the state investment fund.
“Claims that a minister does not understand (what is going on with 1MDB) I do not know (sic) but what I am sure is that discussions have happened and a decision has been made to refer the matter to PAC and the Auditor-General,” he told reporters in Parliament here.
“If there is a decision of the Cabinet (on 1MDB) that was made and a minister does not understand or agree, I feel that he should quit,” the Johor Baru MP added.
Shahrir did not elaborate which federal minister he was referring to, but said he backed Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s view that the Cabinet should be held responsible for 1MDB.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has demanded that 1MDB board members be sacked.
Last week, a video of Muhyiddin was posted on the blog called APANAMA showing the Umno deputy president suggesting in a speech at a closed-door training session that the entire 1MDB board should be sacked and investigated by the police.
The leaked video earned media headlines and fuelled talk that despite Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s recent claim to have the support of his deputy and the entire Umno supreme council, all may not be well within the party.
On Sunday, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad demanded a criminal probe against Putrajaya following its admission that the US$1.103 billion (RM3.979 billion) in offshore deposits that 1MDB had supposedly redeemed was now in the form of “units” instead of cash as previously claimed.
The response contradicted a previous reply by Najib that the funds had been redeemed and kept in the form of US dollars in BSI Bank in Singapore.
In March, Najib ordered the AG and the PAC to investigate 1MDB, amid growing demands for explanations over the state investment firm’s allegedly opaque investment decisions and for amassing a RM42 billion debt pile.
The strategic investment firm’s debts and subsequent cash flow issues that led to problems servicing its loan payments had prompted Dr Mahathir to seek Najib’s resignation.
1MDB was incorporated in 2009, after Najib announced the decision to turn the Terengganu Investment Authority state fund into a federal agency.
Since then, the fund has been dogged by negative publicity over its finances and debts, with the most recent being its controversial land sale to Lembaga Tabung Haji.
