Summon Gani for questioning, Kit Siang tells PAC
DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has urged the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to summon former attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail for questioning when it meets next week.
He said this was to verify whether a draft charge sheet allegedly drawn up against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak was authentic.
“The question of whether there is a draft corruption charge against Najib in connection with the 1MDB scandal in the Attorney-General's Chambers, and whether this was the real reason for the sacking of Gani, is an important issue which the PAC must establish if its 1MDB investigation is going to command credibility, not only in Malaysia but also in international circles,” he said in a statement today.
The PAC is scheduled to meet on Monday after a three-month hiatus.
This is due to four of its members, including the then chairperson Nur Jazlan Mohamed, being given ministerial and deputy ministerial positions, and had to vacate their PAC posts following the July 28 cabinet reshuffle
New PAC members, including the new PAC chief Hasan Arifin, were only appointed by the Dewan Rakyat over the past two weeks.
Hasan had been coy on what is in the agenda for PAC’s first meeting.
Just before the cabinet reshuffle, Gani was removed from office and transferred to the judicial and legal service, until his retirement on Oct 5.
It was alleged that the reshuffle and transfers of top civil servants involved in the investigations against 1MDB and Najib since late July were part of a cover-up.
Purported charge
Amid the crisis, the whistleblower site Sarawak Report released photos of a purported charge sheet against Najib, suggesting that Gani was removed from office because he was about to bring corruption charges against the premier.
Gani’s successor Mohamed Apandi Ali had denied Sarawak Report ’s allegations, saying that the document did not came from the Attorney-General’s Chambers, as the format was not correct.
However, Lim said the issue must be brought up again because of a statement from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
The statement was made in response to another statement by former 1MDB subsidiary SRC International , saying that the MACC had never denied the authenticity of the purported charge sheet nor the authenticity of a flowchart published by Malaysiakini, contrary to SRC International’s claims.
The diagram depicts alleged money trails involving SRC International and those leading to Najib’s personal bank account, and the status of the investigations in each trail.
“The question that jumps out of the MACC statement is whether there was a draft charge sheet in the Attorney-General's Chambers against the prime minister related to corruption before Gani was sacked,” Lim said.
He added that the PAC should also summon former Special Branch deputy chief Abdul Hamid Bador, who had been transferred to the Prime Minister’s Department in mid-August.
Hamid had said he was visiting Gani at the latter’s house two days before his transfer, and believed this was the reason for his transfer.
Pecuniary interest
“The PAC should get to the bottom of these conundrums and report to Parliament in its investigations into the 1MDB and RM2.6 billion ‘donation’ scandals,” Lim said.
He also said PAC members should declare whether they have any financial interest in 1MDB or the RM2.6 billion in political donations Najib supposedly received, and if so, should excuse themselves from any PAC hearings on the matter.
Quoting the Dewan Rakyat’s Standing Order 35(6), he said an MP was not allowed to speak on matters in which they have a pecuniary interest, without disclosing their interest.
He added that if an MP violated the Standing Orders for speaking on a matter without disclosing his pecuniary interest, then ‘it is all the more a violation of parliamentary privilege’ if a PAC member investigates 1MDB and the alleged donations to Najib despite having pecuniary interest in the matter.
Najib has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
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