Former AG Ambrin to be first witness in PAC's 1MDB probe

Tan Sri Ambrin Buang. -Star filepic

KUALA LUMPUR: Former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang (pic) is set to be grilled as a witness by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), as part of its probe into the 1MDB controversy. 

According to Deputy PAC chairperson Wong Kah Woh, the PAC will meet on Tuesday (Nov 13) to decide on a date to initiate proceedings on the troubled state investment arm. 

“The first witness to be called in will be Ambrin. We will set a date on Tuesday (Nov 13),” he told reporters when met at Parliament lobby on Monday (Nov 12). 

On Oct 29, Wong claimed that the PAC’s National Audit Department report on 1MDB accounts, which was initiated during the former Barisan Nasional administration, was tampered with. 

However, Ambrin and former PAC chairman Datuk Seri Hasan Arifin have since denied this.

The report was called in March 2015, after the Barisan-led Cabinet ordered the National Audit Department to conduct an audit on 1MDB accounts, with the report subsequently submitted to PAC in July that year. 

However, in March 2016, the A-G’s audited report was classified under the Official Secrets Act, a month before PAC tabled its own 1MDB report in Parliament. 

In May this year, following Pakatan Harapan’s landmark victory in the general election, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad ordered the 1MDB audited report to be declassified with Parliament deciding in August that the newly-formed PAC re-open its probe into the 1MDB scandal.