Treasurer-general Irwan Serigar Abdullah is confident that 1MDB will secure the services of a new auditor soon.

"We are going to appoint an auditor soon," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today.

Asked if 1MDB could identify the auditor by this year, he replied: "Soon, soon."

Irwan Serigar, who is also chairperson of the 1MDB Board, brushed aside the claim that the troubled firm is facing difficulties in finding an auditor willing to number crunch its accounts.

When contacted today, 1MDB president and executive director Arul Kanda Kandasamy declined comment on how soon 1MDB would be able to appoint a new auditor.

1MDB has yet to comply with Companies Commission requirements to submit its audit for the year ending March 31, 2015. 1MDB was given a deadline extension, which expired in March this year.

Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani had admitted before that 1MDB was having trouble looking for an audit firm willing to take up the job.

Arul Kanda also told a dialogue with Universiti Malaya students in October that Deloitte had quit as 1MDB's auditor because the firm could not complete its job as certain key documents were being held by the police.

Since its inception in 2009, 1MDB has routinely changed auditors, beginning with Ernst and Young and later, KPMG.