The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has deleted a couple of lines in its 1MDB report as all information it received from Bank Negara was “confidential” and not meant for public consumption.

"PAC chairman (Hasan Arifin) had received Bank Negara's information which stated all the information given was 'confidential for the purpose of intelligence only for court usage or public report'," said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Azalina Othman Said in a parliamentary reply today.

"For your information, all PAC members had been informed of the matter via a letter penned by PAC chief to the deputy governor of the central bank on April 6," she said.

"Given that PAC report is for public usage, the information should not be included in the report," she told Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan).

Lim was asking whether Hasan can expunge a statement made by Bank Negara that the Malaysian authorities had been informed that Good Star Limited (GSL), which received US$700 million of 1MDB money, is owned by an individual who had no links to the government investment fund’s joint-venture partner, the Petrosaudi Group.

"Is Jho Low the owner of GSL?" he asked.

On April 20, PAC member Tony Pua (photo) pointed out that Hasan had deleted certain lines from the PAC report on 1MDB that were crucial to the investigation.

The lines concerned Bank Negara's information that Good Star Ltd, into which US$1.03 billion from 1MDB's joint venture with PetroSaudi International was diverted to, was owned by an individual and not linked to the PetroSaudi group as claimed.

"This finding is crucial to the entire investigations of 1MDB because the company and its executives have testified to PAC that Good Star is a subsidiary of Petrosaudi," Pua had then said.

He added: "However, the company was unable to provide any concrete evidence, such as a company search or certificate of incorporation from the relevant authorities, despite repeated requests, to back up its claims to both the auditor-general and the PAC.

"All 1MDB could provide was, a letter dated in 2015, from Petrosaudi to 1MDB making a claim that Good Star Limited was part of the Petrosaudi group."