Hasan should let his deputy handle PAC’s 1MDB probe, Kit Siang says

By MT Webmaster On Dec 2, 2015

(Malay Mail Online) – Lim Kit Siang suggested today that Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Datuk Hasan Arifin allow his deputy Dr Tan Seng Giaw handle the panel’s investigation on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

The DAP lawmaker questioned Hasan’s sincerity, noting that the newly-appointed PAC chairman had yesterday “jumped the gun” when he declared that the panel was “satisfied” with Arul Kanda Kandasamy’s explanations even though its interview with the 1MDB president was not over yet.

“Hasan exhibited such a ‘cari makan’ propensity yesterday when he jumped the gun and declared that he was ‘satisfied’ with the testimony given by the 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy to the PAC, although Arul had not completed his testimony nor did Hasan had the authority of the PAC to declare publicly that the PAC was satisfied with Arul’s testimony.

“He (Hasan) should make way for the deputy PAC chairman Dr Tan Seng Giaw to head the PAC inquiry into the 1MDB scandal so that the PAC inquiry would not be sullied by his ‘cari makan’ propensities,” Lim said in a statement, borrowing the Malay term used by Hasan recently when he was asked for the PAC’s reasons for not interviewing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Yesterday when the panel broke for lunch, Hasan told reporters that the PAC was so far satisfied with the answers provided by Arul Kanda, who was finally interviewed after he was initially summoned for questioning in August.

Later, PAC member Tony Pua said in a Facebook post that it was merely Hasan’s own opinion that the panel was satisfied with Arul Kanda’s answers.

Once the PAC is done with Arul Kanda, the committee will also call 1MDB chairman Tan Sri Lodin Wak Kamaruddin to give his statement after the committee has been briefed by the Auditor-General on his final report on the audit on 1MDB.

Aside from the PAC, the Auditor-General is also conducting an audit on the accounts of 1MDB, which has reportedly amassed debts of some RM42 billion since it was incorporated in 2009.