Former PAC head assumed A-G’s report on 1MDB wasn’t tampered with

KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), under the helm of its former chairman Datuk Hasan Ariffin, had assumed the Auditor-General’s final report on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) given by Tan Sri Ambrin Buang, was not tampered with.

Hasan admitted this when quizzed by reporters at the Parliament lobby on Tuesday (Nov 27).

According to Hasan, the PAC was not aware of any amendments made on the report when it was submitted by the former Auditor-General on March 4, 2016.

“We were not aware (of any amendments), and what Ambrin brought to the PAC, that was the report,” he added.

Hasan said that the issue on the matter is that Ambrin had already denied that there were instances of tampering on the MDB final audit report back then, adding, “so we took it as it is”.

Last Friday (Nov 23), Utusan Malaysia dropped a bombshell in a report, citing unnamed sources as claiming that former premier Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had ordered the removal of his and Jho Low's involvement in the audit report of 1MDB.

Ambrin’s successor, Auditor-General Tan Sri Madinah Mohamad, confirmed the claims by Utusan on Sunday (Nov 25), saying two crucial deletions were made to the final report on 1MDB - one on the financial status of 1MDB, and the other on the presence of Low at a meeting of the 1MDB board meetings.

Madinah said that the directive to make changes had come from Tan Sri Shukry Salleh, the former private secretary of Najib on Feb 26, 2016.

Ambrin was also called up for questioning by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on Monday (Nov 26) for its ongoing investigations over claims that the final audit report on 1MDB was altered.