Saturday, 24 January 2015 08:08NUR JAZLAN DISAPPOINTS: PAC won't touch 1MDB, says chairman

GEORGE TOWN - Since an international audit firm has already cleared 1Malaysia Development Berhads (1MDB) financial dealings, the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will not touch the government-link company (GLC).PAC chairman Nur Jazlan Mohamed said, A big name international reputable auditing firm has already audited the company and given (its) okay on 1MDBs books.So what are we going to use as (a) basis to investigate it? asked Nur Jazlan during a question and answer session at a forum here last night jointly organised by the Penang Institute and the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) entitled: Government Audit: Formality or Accountability?Other panelists were Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) legal advisor Han Chee Rul and Penang Institute director and Bukit Mertajam MP from DAP Steven Sim.Nur Jazlan was responding to a question on whether PAC would probe into various allegations of rising debts and financial controversies made against 1MDB, a GLC established under the Prime Ministers Department.The Pulai MP also argued that allegations and figures given by 1MDBs most vocal critics, Pakatan Rakyat MPs Tony Pua of DAP and Rafizi Ramli of PKR, were not substantiated and accurate after all.Pua and Rafizis figures at times are not even correct, he said.He also raised suspicion as to why a particular Jho Low had been linked to 1MDB when the persons connection with the GLC could not be established by critics.Meanwhile MACCs Han spoke at length about the issue of illicit flows of money, pointing out the inaccurate methodology deployed by Global Financial Integrity (GFI) to rate nations.For instance, he said Malaysia might export RM80 billion worth of goods to Japan.

But, he said only RM70 billion goods would have reached the Far East country directly while another RM10 billion exported indirectly to Japan via other countries such as Hong Kong or Singapore.The GFI methodology however, he said would not take into account the RM10 billion indirect exports to Japan and would classify it as illicit flow of money.I pointed it this out to GFI at an international forum. None of the GFI authors objected to my point, said Han.Last years annual report of the Washington-based GFI index revealed that Malaysia lost RM171 billion in illegal outflows of money in 2012 and was ranked fifth in the world.It also revealed that the country had lost some RM1.38 trillion since 2003.According to the GFI index, China topped the list of the illegal outflow of capital in 2012 with US$249.57 billion, followed by Russia (US$122.86 billion), India (US$94.76 billion), Mexico (US$59.66 billion) and Malaysia is US$49 billion.Last nights forum was officiated by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng while C4 co-founder Cynthia Gabriel was the forum moderator. - FMT

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No power to audit klia2, 1MDB, says A-GBY ANISAH SHUKRYPublished: 29 November 2014 12:46 PMAuditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang says he has no reason to probe Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd over the construction of klia2. The Malaysian Insider file pic, November 29, 2014.The Auditor-General (A-G) said today he had no reason to investigate Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd (MAHB), over the construction of the RM4 billion low-cast-carrier terminal klia2, as well as the scandal-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) as these firms have been audited by big international firms.Tan Sri Ambrin Buang told a forum on government accountability in Kuala Lumpur today that the firms were already audited by "one of the big four" auditing companies."At the moment, we aren't touching public-listed companies. MAHB is a public-listed company."Their accounts are being audited by the big four. There is no reason for us to audit their accounts. It is already being done," said the A-G to a question from the audience on the issue.He added that the government needed to give his department the green light first for it to scrutinise MAHB's accounts."We have to have discussions. I cannot go in without proper authority," he said.But he added that his department reviewed from time to time the list of companies they investigated, adding that they would begin with any firm the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommended.Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang says 1MDB is already being audited by the big four. The Malaysian Insider pic by Zhafri Azmi, November 29, 2014.On 1MDB, he said the state sovereign funds had already given clarification on its investment and business strategies."What do you want us to do? As far as their accounts are concerned they have already been audited by the big four," he said.Ambrin added that 1MDB had already filed its accounts with the Companies Commission of Malaysia, which had not raised any objections.However, fellow panellist Tony Pua, the MP for Petaling Jaya Utara who also sits on the PAC, argued that the A-Gs audit of 1MDBs accounts was necessary as the private firms may have overlooked certain aspects.He said that private auditing firms would not quiz 1MDB as to why they had paid fees, commissions and expenses at an excess of 10% to raise bonds, when other governments paid at a far lower rate.So if I were from PricewaterhouseCoopers, as long as I can see that Goldman Sachs received 10%, officially the receipt and payment given to Goldman Sachs, thats what I put in the accounts, said the DAP publicity chief.Deloitte wouldnt ask how come you (1MDB) pay 10%, other people pay 5%, or 0.1%. So the role of our governments auditors is to look at the performance of it and value audit if our companies are actually spending our money in a value-for-money method.Critics of 1MDB have questioned the fund's heavy debts, its use of money and its opaque operations.Among its staunchest critics is Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who had called on Putrajaya to explain how the fund had benefited Malaysians, especially since it incurred a RM38 billion debt in just five years of its operations.Dr Mahathir had said that there was no need for 1MDB as it only served to add on to the country's debt.However, 1MDB chairman Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin had said that its assets stood at RM51.4 billion, about RM2.5 billion more than its liabilities of RM48.9 billion as of March 31, 2014.He denied that its acquisition of energy assets was overpriced, adding that its real estate investments, including the 70ha financial hub, known as the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), and Bandar Malaysia, would be profitable in four years.On Tuesday, PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed had said the A-G should investigate klia2 for weakness and irregularities including claims that the Cabinet was not properly briefed on some aspects of construction, thus causing delays and cost overruns.Nur Jazlan had said that although klia2 was built using private funds, its owner MAHB was a government-linked company.The Barisan Nasional MP for Pulai also said even though MAHB's finances had been audited, it had never been audited for its performance in terms of construction and delivery of a project.The following day, MAHB managing director Datuk Badlisham Ghazali said they welcomed the proposal, but added that it wanted to discuss the type of audit with the Transport Ministry first.PAC in its report found that klia2 did not follow its original concept as the LCCT's replacement, and had instead changed it to be "hybrid" concept airport after numerous upgrades and unexpected cost increases."The result found that klia2 will threaten KLIA as the country's main airport."Malaysia has lost its golden opportunity to develop the most competitive aviation hub company in the Asia-Pacific region," said the report.klia2, which started operations on May 2 this year, was built to cater for 45 million passengers annually. The cost of construction ballooned from an initial RM1.7 billion to RM4 billion. November 29, 2014.- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/no-reason-to-audit-klia2-1mdb-says-a-g#sthash.0UPoNZoC.dpuf

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