1MDB pledges to take responsible measures

PETALING JAYA: The board of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) has said that no one should “pre-judge” its financial matters ahead of the reviews by the Auditor-General (AG).

In a statement, the strategic development company’s board said that in the event of any adverse findings, the board would “take all the responsible measures and actions.”

“We, therefore, seek the patience and understanding of the public and interested parties to wait for the results of these review.

“We request that no one should pre-judge the matter without thorough facts ahead of the reviews being made public,” it said in the statement yesterday.

It also pointed out the 1MDB board and management were co-operating fully with the AG, police and the Public Accounts Committee in their reviews of the company.

It also stressed that the company’s accounts were audited by international audit firm Deloitte which had signed off its 2013 and 2014 accounts without qualification.

“Similarly, KPMG signed off the 2010, 2011 and 2012 accounts with no qualification.

“The board takes malicious and slanderous allegations seriously and reserves the right to undertake legal action,” it said in the statement yesterday.

On Thursday, prominent banker Datuk Seri Nazir Razak had taken the board of 1MDB to task and said that its directors should resign if they were unable to come clean and explain the poor financials of the fund.

Nazir had opined that the fundamental problem with 1MDB was that the board and management were not facing the public and instead were waiting for the AG to verify the books, something that he described as being irresponsible.

“Why should 1MDB wait for the AG to do it?” he had asked.

“It is the responsibility of the board to do it. I think what 1MDB should do now is to go and appoint an independent audit firm to audit its assets, liabilities and future cash flow so that we can get to the bottom of what the issue is.

“If I am a board member and I can’t explain, I would appoint someone who is independent to audit my numbers or I should quit,” the CIMB Group Holdings Bhd chairman told reporters during a luncheon at the Asean Business Club forum in Singapore.

1MDB, a fund established by the Finance Ministry in 2009 that has its business concentrated on property development and power generation, is saddled with debts to the tune of RM42bil.

In March this year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak ordered the AG – Tan Sri Ambrin Buang – to audit the books of 1MDB to verify the accounts, with its report to be handed to the PAC for scrutiny.

Although 1MDB has assets in excess of RM51bil to back the debts, it is facing cash-flow problems to meet its debt obligations.

This year, 1MDB has obligations of RM5.1bil to meet and the bulk is in the form of a US-dollar term loan amounting to US$975mil (RM3.5bil) that matures on Aug 31.