Datuk Seri Najib Razak (centre) leaves the Kuala Lumpur court complex March 14 2022. — Picture by Devan Manuel
KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak did not stop a parliamentary watchdog known as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) from investigating 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), his lead defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah claimed today.
Shafee said this during Najib’s trial over the misappropriation of more than RM2 billion of 1MDB funds, and while cross-examining the 12th prosecution witness Azmi Tahir who was also the former chief financial officer of 1MDB.
Shafee referred today to the PAC’s report on 1MDB which was released on April 7, 2016 to the public, insisting that the report’s content showed the independent findings of the PAC.
“Importantly, do you see the date that I mentioned to you just now, the date is April 7, 2016. What is the significance of that date? The significance of the date, I’m putting to you, the prime minister and finance minister was Datuk Seri Najib.
“This finding was already made, he allowed the PAC to investigate, he didn’t stop the PAC, and the PAC independently found the management misled the board,” Shafee remarked in the High Court today.
Shafee: Now I ask you a question, did Datuk Seri Najib stop the PAC from investigating?
Azmi: No, he didn’t stop.
Shafee: He allowed PAC to investigate fully?
Azmi: And my contract was renewed, so it doesn’t look to me that I did anything wrong at that time.
Azmi was part of the 1MDB management then in his role as the CFO from June 2012 to December 2017.
Azmi was referring to the renewal of his contract after the PAC’s April 2016 report, which had recommended for law enforcement agencies to further investigate the 1MDB management.
Azmi also highlighted that appointments to senior management roles in 1MDB could not be done without the prime minister’s approval, but Shafee sought to dispute this by remarking that renewal of Azmi’s contract alone would not clear him of any alleged wrongdoing.
In response to Shafee’s highlighting of the PAC’s recommendation on the last page of its PAC report for further investigation of 1MDB management, Azmi confirmed that the 1MDB management did face investigations.
Shafee: This was undertaken, the prime minister never stopped that recommendation from being carried out?
Azmi: It appears so, yes.
According to PAC’s report, it had in February 2015 asked the National Audit Department (NAD) to carry out an audit on 1MDB, and that the Cabinet had in early March 2015 decided that NAD was to submit a report on 1MDB’s accounts to 1MDB.
The PAC itself in May 2015 started an inquiry on 1MDB by calling various individuals and entities including former and existing 1MDB board members and senior management and senior Finance Ministry officials and auditors Deloitte and KPMG to provide their explanation.
The NAD, which had started auditing 1MDB from March 2015, later presented its 1MDB audit report on March 4 and March 7, 2016 to the PAC.
This 1MDB trial against Najib was initially scheduled to be heard before High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah from today until Thursday, but is likely to only resume on Thursday.
This is because Najib’s lawyers would be representing him at the Federal Court for the next two days in his bid to add purported new evidence to his appeal against his conviction over the misappropriation of RM42 million of 1MDB’s former subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd.
Shafee had this morning told the High Court that Najib’s presence and the majority of his lawyers in this 1MDB trial would be required for the SRC matter at the Federal Court, with the High Court judge then instructing for Najib’s lawyers to notify if the Federal Court matter ends earlier and for the 1MDB trial witness to be put on standby if it is possible for the trial to resume as scheduled.
Separately, Najib along with former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy are facing another trial in relation to the alleged tampering of the NAD’s audit report on 1MDB before it could be presented to the PAC.
In that trial, Najib is charged with abusing his position as prime minister and finance minister to receive self-gratification in the form of protection from civil or criminal action regarding his role in handling 1MDB’s operations, by ordering amendments in February 2016 to the auditor-general’s audit report on 1MDB before it was presented to the PAC.
Arul Kanda was charged with abetting Najib in the tampering of the 1MDB audit report.