COMMENT Now that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has given the greenlight for the authorities to investigate "weaknesses" and "constraints" in 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), it is time for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Commercial Crimes Investigations Division of the police force to pounce upon the company's management.

"In summary, PAC found the constraints and certain weaknesses in 1MDB management and board of directors. Particularly, PAC was of the view that 1MDB ex-CEO Shahrol should take the responsibility for the weaknesses and constraints," the PAC's report on 1MDB said in urging the authorities to take action.

In a statement to the media later, PAC chairperson Hasan Ariffin said the report must be studied in detail and followed up with investigations by enforcement authorities.

"If an offence is proven (to have been committed), legal actions must be taken," Hasan said.

Since all has gone silent now on the PAC front, and the buck has been passed to the enforcement agencies, it is time for them to pick up the glove and get to work, so to speak.

Indeed, the anti-graft body should look not only at 1MDB but also all related companies, such as SRC International Sdn Bhd, which has been involved in questionable movements of funds from, or in conjunction with, 1MDB.

SRC, for example, had borrowed RM4 billion from the Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pencen (KWAP) while it was a 1MDB subsidiary, with the money still not satisfactorily accounted for and its movement shrouded in secrecy, and allegedly, to usage for purposes that it was not intended for.

KWAP might not be worried, but as taxpayers we all should be, for we are de facto guarantors of government guaranteed loans. Though this pales to the RM20 billion out of the RM50 billion or so that that our government had guaranteed for 1MDB, which we and our children and our children's children may have to pay for if things go south.

Since Prime Minister Naijb Abdul Razak has been duly spared the lash by the PAC, which saw him being anointed innocent by the argument of his loyalists, that battle is perhaps an uphill one, despite previous investigation papers sent, returned and later discharged as proof of the lack of criminal wrongdoings that the papers were instead trying to prove.

Go for those who transferred monies

But the avenue is now open to go after the very persons who transferred the monies in question, be it in 1MDB or SRC and other companies.

If, as argued by Najib loyalists, there is no hidden hand or undue influence apparent in joining PAC in scapegoating the former 1MDB management, then that is the route of least resistance that authorities can go after, without fear of interference, for the moment.

These very individuals who had signed the transfers and decided to move the monies around, whose signatures and instructions to banks would have stood testament to their culpability, should be hounded and investigated, even multi-storey interrogation rooms can perhaps be reopened if the available ones on the ground floor are all taken up.

Seeking the truth at times can be like hunting for a diamond seam among coal deposits.

At times, and within the constraints of restrictions, one must carefully chip away at the coal with the pick, rather than just blow everything up with dynamite as this would make a mess out of it.

Sometimes we may find a wall of iron ore blocking the way, which means that we have to drill a whole new shaft to get at the diamond seam from another angle.

Just as we must sometimes contend with natural disasters that may collapse existing mining shafts because of weak soil or earth movements, or not-so-natural-disasters such as sabotage and outside interference, even sudden transfers of key personnel.

In any case, the only way to get to the diamond, or rather the truth, sometimes requires the constant chipping of the pick by the authorities under the harsh glare of the media and with liberal application of public pressure.

Who knows what overturning each and every stone along the way may turn up? Maybe even confessions and affidavits about who really ordered the shenanigans that the PAC said had been perpetrated by 1MDB and allied company managements? Be they shadow directorships or hidden hand antecedents to the current snafu.

HAZLAN ZAKARIA is a member of Team Malaysiakini.