MP SPEAKS Finally after the chairman of the second largest bank in Malaysia, Nazir Razak told the board of Directors and management of 1MDB to resign if they could not get their act together, we got a response from the board. Two days ago, Nazir Razak ( below ) said:
"It is your basic responsibility. There is a complete mistrust in your financial situation. You have to responsibly deal with that. But instead you sit there and wait for the auditor-general (AG).
"To me that is irresponsible. If you do that then it is better for you to step down and let someone else come in and take over."
The board of directors responded yesterday that they “would like to stress that 1MDB accounts are audited by an international audit firm, Deloitte”. It said that Deloitte signed off 1MDB’s 2013 and 2014 accounts without qualification and similarly KPMG signed off the 2010, 2011 and 2012 accounts with no qualification.
All the management, board of directors and Prime Minister Najib Razak has done to date is to hide behind the fact that “1MDB accounts are audited by an international audit firm, Deloitte”. They have stubbornly refused to entertain specific criticisms arising from the damaging exposés by opposition leaders, whistleblowers and the media.
Answer specific allegations
If the board of directors have not been negligent, or worse, complicit with the alleged embezzlement and mismanagement of 1MDB, why haven’t they responded to the accusations which were supported by evidence that out of US$1 billion which was meant for the 1MDB Petrosaudi joint venture, US$700 million was allegedly siphoned by Good Star Limited, a company controlled by Jho Low in 2009?
Worse, after the above transaction, 1MDB continued to funnel money to Good Star Limited under the guise of providing loans to Petrosaudi International. Good Star Limited allegedly siphoned an additional US$490 million between 2010 and 2011 out of US$830 million of loans granted to Petrosaudi.
The board has obstinately refused to answer if the alleged US$1.1 billion “parked” in BSI Bank Singapore , which was the balance redeemed from 1MDB’s mysterious Caymans investment is held in actual cash, or unvalued paper assets. This is despite evidence published that BSI Bank Singapore has denied the authenticity of a statement provided by 1MDB president Arul Kanda Kandasamy.
Even today, the management and board have refused to provide clarity if 1MDB will be able to repay its US$975 million loan as demanded by its lenders led by Deutsche Bank.
None of the above crucial and urgent questions require a full “audit” by the auditor-general (AG) to answer. The board has the responsibility to reassure the Malaysian taxpayers and financial markets with facts and evidence that all the above are either untrue or perhaps justified.
Instead, the entire country is upset and the markets are in a panic because it is plain to us that 1MDB is already an insolvent company which is unable to service its debts.
If the so reputable “international” Deloitte signed off the 1MDB accounts on November 5, 2014 without any qualifications, then why is it that 1MDB is unable to repay a RM2 billion loan due at the end of November 2014?
Why did 1MDB have to resort to begging for a loan arranged by local billionaire Ananda Krishnan?
If 1MDB is indeed so healthy as audited by the very reputable “international” Deloitte, why is it that it needed the cabinet to approve an emergency RM950 million in February to help 1MDB repay interest due on its RM42 billion loans?
Will you sue Nazir too?
If all the above critical allegations and exposes are untrue, why is it that 1MDB is trying to quickly dispose of all its land which it acquired at bargain basement prices to government-linked funds like Lembaga Tabung Haji and Kumpulan Wang Amanah Persaraan (KWAP) at sky-high prices? Why is it unable to carry out its initial public offering (IPO) for its energy subsidiaries?
Therefore, the 1MDB board of directors has no moral right to demand Malaysians to be patient if it can’t even be responsible and transparent in its dubious transactions and activities.
It is laughable that the board even threatened to sue its detractors. It claimed that it “takes malicious and slanderous allegations seriously and reserves the right to undertake legal action.” Why wait until today to take legal action when the most damaging allegations have been circulating in the public sphere for nearly a year already?
While the prime minister has already sued me over the 1MDB issue, I would welcome the 1MDB board of directors to throw their hat into the ring. Go ahead and take legal action against Nazir Razak and myself.
Since we could not get the board to talk in public, the least we could do is to get them to answer from the witness box and let Malaysians be the judge of their culpability.
TONY PUA is DAP national publicity secretary and Petaling Jaya Utara MP.
