Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani has been urged to explain why Putrajaya now dissociates 1MDB from the government's budget, although this wasn't the case in the past.

Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said 1MDB had been mentioned in Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's budget speeches before, as well as in data compiled for the non-financial public corporations.

In his Budget 2011 speech, Najib mentioned the word 1MDB four times.

Among others, Najib said 1MDB was in collaboration with Mubadala Development Company to develop the Kuala Lumpur International Financial District (KLIFD).

1MDB was also supposed to provide multi-vitamins for primary school students, provide RM20 million to the 1Malaysia Youth Fund and implement a 1Malaysia Mobile Clinic scheme.

"If (1MDB) was relevant then, why is it suddenly not relevant today?" asked Pua.

Pua was referring to Johari's claim 1MDB had nothing to do with the government's budget, as it is managed by its own board and hence not mentioned in this year's budget presentation.

Johari argued that 1MDB's debt management plans involved the divesting of some assets and not public funds that would be spent through the government's budget.

1MDB gov't guarantees matter

However, Pua argued that Putrajaya's budget had everything to do with 1MDB because the government has indirectly or directly guaranteed an estimated RM32 billion of 1MDB's borrowings.

"If 1MDB fails to repay its loans and obligations, then the Finance Ministry will have to foot the bill. The (required) RM32 billion will raise our targeted deficit of 3% of the GDP to 5.4%.

"Any responsible finance minister would have the obligation to explain to the Malaysian taxpayers as to how the financial scandal would be resolved, especially since the much-hyped rationalisation exercise, which was supposed to by completed by June this year has collapsed," said Pua.

Pua was referring to attempts by the International Petroleum Investment Corporation (IPIC) to claim billions of dollars from 1MDB over monies that was supposed to be paid to IPIC's subsidiary Aabar Investment PJS.

The matter is currently being arbitrated in the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) in the UK.

"The failure of the prime minister in addressing the 1MDB issue, especially in the budget, is a clear attempt to hide the scandal and cover up for the guilty parties... who had misappropriated billions of dollars from the state-owned investment firm.

"The second finance minister should be ashamed of himself for failing the people of Malaysia after he has been appointed to the cabinet to get to the bottom of the single largest scandal ever suffered by Malaysia, and instead turned into a stooge to defend the kleptocrats of this nation," said Pua.