Najib: All requested 1MDB papers given to A-G

(MMO) – 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has submitted all the documents requested by the National Audit Department for its report on the state investment fund, Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said.

Najib said this in a written parliamentary reply to DAP lawmaker Tony Pua who had asked Putrajaya to explain why 1MDB had failed to provide the account statements of its foreign subsidiaries, which he said the Auditor-General (A-G) had been asking for since May last year.

“All documents belonging to 1MDB and/or requested and/or acquired by 1MDB had been submitted to the National Audit Department,” the reply read.

Pua had previously complained that 1MDB had failed to furnish Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the A-G with its overseas bank statements.

Pua, a PAC member himself, said the panel had during its investigation attempted and failed numerous times to get 1MDB and officials from the Finance Ministry to surrender the firm’s overseas bank statements.

The DAP leader then urged Najib to compel 1MDB to hand over statements from its overseas bank accounts to the PAC.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP insisted today, however, that no such documents have since been provided.

He said 1MDB’s failure to submit the documents meant the firm was “hiding something”.

“If I want a statement from the bank, I can get it in two weeks. Why can’t 1MDB get them… unless they want to hide something,” he said.

PAC released its much-anticipated final report on the troubled state investment arm last month after almost a year of proceedings, and the questioning of dozens of government and 1MDB officials, including its CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy.

Among its findings, PAC found that the 1MDB board of directors had failed to ensure the fund’s management complied with good accounting practices.