Our 1MDB probe sabotaged, says PAC deputy chief
(TMI) – Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) highly anticipated inquiry into 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) was “deliberately sabotaged”, its deputy chairman Dr Tan Seng Giaw said, after losing key members ahead of this week’s grilling of former and current executives of the debt-ridden state investor.
The bipartisan panel was to have continued its inquiry with former 1MDB CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi in Parliament this morning, before moving on to president and group executive director, Arul Kanda Kandasamy, tomorrow.
Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman, who served as 1MDB’s CEO from March 2013 to January 2015, was to have appeared before the panel on Thursday.
“PAC has been deliberately suspended and we already anticipated the 1MDB people would not turn up.
“We have anticipated the whole thing to be deliberately sabotaged,” Dr Tan told The Malaysian Insider.
Dr Tan refused to elaborate who had “deliberately sabotaged” the PAC proceedings, but noted that never in the history of the 13-member committee had so many of its members been elevated to the government administration at the same time.
PAC’s outspoken chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamad and three other members – Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican, Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin and Datuk Wilfred Madius Tangau – were promoted to the Cabinet.
Their appointments disqualified them from being PAC members.
Opinion is divided over the interpretation of Parliament’s Standing Orders, as to whether the remaining members of the PAC can continue holding hearings.
While Dr Tan and other opposition members of the committee say PAC can carry on with the proceedings, Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia, in citing Standing Order 77(3), declared that all PAC proceedings, including its ongoing inquiry into 1MDB, had to be temporarily suspended pending the appointment of a new chairman and members.
Pandikar’s view has been disputed by PAC opposition members as well as the Bar Council, which said the committee could still function as it had the required quota, and that Dr Tan as deputy chair could take over the functions of the chairman.
Dr Tan confirmed that PAC had received an official letter from the Parliament secretary, informing them of the postponement of all its inquiry proceedings, including its hearing on 1MDB.
But the committee’s members from the opposition are still meeting today, he said, and he hoped that the remaining members from Barisan Nasional would also turn up.
The latest development marks the second time that Shahrol and Arul Kanda escaped PAC, after they skipped a scheduled hearing on May 26, citing work overseas.
