The Finance Ministry should not be quoting 1MDB when answering parliamentary questions about the controversial sovereign wealth fund, an opposition lawmaker said.

"The Finance Ministry always starts (its written answers) with 'based on information from 1MDB's management'.

"The Finance Ministry is supposed to get the correct answers and give it to us, they are not supposed to say 'based on 1MDB'. [...] The answers in Parliament can't be based on hearsay," an irate Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said.

Pua ( photo ) was venting his frustration at a press conference in the Parliament lobby, after receiving three "useless" written replies from the ministry on 1MDB.

"The answers are irrelevant, because they don't answer the question, but what I want to point out is why the Finance Ministry answering in Parliament using this phrase.

"Are they trying to protect themselves? Is the Finance Ministry trying to disassociate themselves from 1MDB? 'This is what they say, this is not what I say'?" he asked.

Twisting and turning of Arul Kanda

He then posed if the reason behind this is because the ministry wants to avoid having to retract statements, or if they were hiding something.

"It is the twisting and turning that is the trademark of the new 1MDB president Arul Kanda," he added.

Pua also rubbished an attempt to dodge one of his questions, on whether 1MDB only met up with Petrosaudi International Limited only five days before inking an agreement to form the 1MDB-Petrosaudi Limited joint venture.

The Finance Ministry had cited a Standing Order in which a question cannot be asked to verify a media report.

"This is nonsense! My question did not ask if the report by a portal was true.

"The minister only had to answer yes or no. Why does the minister want to avoid this?" he asked.