1MDB president Arul Kanda and former CEO Shahrol Ibrahim Halmi will be called to testify before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in the first week of August, said committee chairperson Nur Jazlan Mohamed.

Speaking at a press conference today, Nur Jazlan said formal notices would be sent to the pair soon.

This comes after Arul and Shahrol failed to attend a previous hearing on May 26, ostensibly because they were overseas.

"This time, no more excuses. The two of them must come," Nur Jazlan (photo) said.

He explained that the long notice period was because of the upcoming Ramadan fasting month, which is expected to take place from June 18 until July 16, and the Aidilfitri celebrations afterwards.

"Because of the puasa month and the hari raya period, we give them a chance. Arul is a Muslim, so we have to give him a chance to celebrate puasa.

"So we start in the first week of August. We will call both of them, and hopefully we can call the (1MDB) board by the end of August," he said.

Blessing in disguise

By September, Nur Jazlan said PAC would have the "big picture" of the happenings in and around 1MDB, after questioning its main players – namely its sole shareholder the Ministry of Finance, its executives Arul and Shahrol, its current and former auditors, and its board members.

From then on, he said PAC would decide what leads it should follow and whom to call next.

In the meantime, PAC grilled representatives from the auditing firm Deloitte today in a hearing which ran from about 11.20am until 2.50pm.

It originally intended to question Arul and Shahrol first before calling 1MDB's auditors to testify, but decided to proceed with questioning the auditors after the duo informed PAC that they are unable to attend the hearing.

Nur Jazlan said the change of plans turned out to be a "blessing in disguise", as it provided the committee with a wealth of information that it can use to query other witnesses later.

"We don't know the real information – the facts and figures. All we know are from media reports – lots of allegations, we don't know if it is proven true or not.

"So just now we got the testimony from Deloitte. It must be testimony that is based on truth," he said when asked to elaborate.

Seven Deloitte representatives appeared before the committee today, including Deloitte Malaysia country managing partner Tan Theng Hooi ( photo ), and audit partner Ng Yee Hong, the latter of whom had signed off 1MDB's March 2014 accounts.

Nur Jazlan said as PAC would be comparing Deloitte's testimony against those of other witnesses, it is possible that the PAC might call the firm to a hearing again.