PAC probe: No discrepancy on 1MDB

KUALA LUMPUR: Public Account Committee member Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahalan has dismissed allegations made by another committee member that the findings about 1Malaysia Development Berhad (IMDB)'s account were misleading.

Abdul Rahman, who is Barisan Nasional MP for Kota Belud reiterated that no discrepancy was found during the probe as alleged by his PAC colleague Tony Pua Kiam Wee.

"The committee had found that 1MDB had changed the their nature of investment. Instead of doing equity-based exercise, in the joint-venture company (1MDB PetroSaudi Ltd), 1MDB had lend money to the Saudi Arabia-based PetroSaudi International Ltd (PetroSaudi).

"In other words, the exercise had allowed 1MDB to receive a guaranteed payback. With this, they don't have to wait for the investment to reach level of maturity before earning profits," Abdul Rahman told The Mole.

In an article carried by The Star previously, PAC's chairman Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid had described the company’s balance sheet as transparent and it had a healthy cash flow, adding that the details were available online.

"Technically speaking, their (1MDB) accounts are in order. From what we can see, 1MDB has a healthy balance sheet which also shows profits for its investments,” he said as quoted in the paper.

However, in another press conference made 24 hours later, Pua claimed that 1MDB's account were manipulated.

Pua, who is DAP MP for Petaling Jaya Utara, alleged that the profits shown in the balance sheet submitted by the government's strategic investment arm had been propped up by the re-evaluation of parcels of prime land as well as the injection of loans.

Another opposition MP William Leong reminded Azmi that it is wrong to come to that conclusion when 1MDB had refused to furnish six out of seven documents requested by the PAC.

Commenting on this, Abdul Rahmad said, PetroSaudi had the right to not submit the documents requested as it is subjected to a non-disclosure clause in the agreement signed by both 1MDB and the Arab Saudi-based oil and gas firm.

"You cannot force PetroSaudi to reveal the documents as there's non disclosure clause in the agreement and those documents were classified as their trade secret. No international company would like to share its strength openly to the world without a concrete reason," he said. 

Meanwhile, BN MP for Hulu Selangor P Kamalanathan said that people should not pay too much attention to Pua's allegations as the latter was proven to be an expert in defaming others.

Kamalanathan said, if there is a basis for his allegations, Pua should have raised them in earlier PAC's meetings.

Pua's credibility also, as Kamalanathan said, is questionable since the former had lost in a court case and had to pay RM200,000 to Syabas for defaming the Selangor-based water conglomerate.

Last year, Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had sent a letter to PAC asking for a probe to be carried out regarding 1MDB's joint-venture company with PetroSaudi International Ltd.

Anwar, in the letter, claimed that 1MDB's earnings was suspicious as it was raised in the audit report by international firm KPMG.

The blog Spanking da Monkey had succintly put into perspective what the venture is all about and how baseless and malicious these allegations were, proving they were merely efforts to undermine the Government and done at whaever cost.  

After almost a year since the probe was conducted by PAC, its chairman Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid concluded that 1MDB's account is 'healthy and in order', without any discrepancy detected.

1MDB, introduced in September 2009, is wholly owned by the Government and serves as a strategic enabler for new ideas and sources of growth to propel economic transformation.

Source: MOLE