Deputy parliamentary speaker Ronald Kiandee has weighed in on the ongoing war of words between BN and opposition MPs, over why the government isn't making the interim audit report on 1MDB public.

"The auditor-general's report has been handed to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), therefore it become part of the evidence.

"Therefore Standing Order 85 applies," tweeted deputy speaker Ronald Kiandee ( photo ) this morning.

Kiandee refuted PAC member and Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua's argument that no regulation forbids the audit report from being released to the public.

Standing Order No 85, on 'premature publication of evidence', states:

"The evidence taken before any select committee and any documents presented to such committee shall not be published by any member of such committee, or by any other person, before the committee has presented its report to the House."

Pua: Why cloak report?

Pua had responded to BN strategic communications director Abdul Rahman Dahlan's claim that the report cannot be made public until it is tabled in Parliament, citing standing orders.

The DAP MP argued the restriction was on the PAC's own report, and not any document submitted to it.

The PAC has “absolutely no power” to prevent any document that has been submitted to it from being separately released to the public, Pua said yesterday.

Pua was asking why Rahman, who is Kota Belud MP, was more inclined to "keep the truth in the dark by citing non-existent clauses".

He added all it required was for the finance minister, who is also Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, to direct the auditor-general to release the interim report.

The opposition has been calling for Najib to release the audit report to the public to prove that 1MDB's dealings are above board, as claimed.

Aziz Bari: Pua correct

Meanwhile constitutional law expert Abdul Aziz Bari said he agreed with Pua's position that nothing should prevent the prevent the report from being made public.

"After all that is the raison détre of the auditor-general's report itself, especially now that the matter has become a public issue.

"Parliament is after all the forum for the MPs who represent the public," Aziz told Malaysiakini yesterday.

Elaborating on the constitutional provisions on the attorney-general, he stressed that its role is to promote accountability.

"To say (the attorney-general is under the finance minister) would defeat the whole purpose of creating the attorney-general's office and negate his role to promote transparenecy and accountability."

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