PARLIAMENT | Former Prime Minister Najib Razak had endorsed an RM5 million payment to ex-1MDB president Arul Kanda Kandasamy, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng revealed today.

This confirms an exclusive report by Malaysiakini in June, which said that the government agreed to pay the ex-gratia amount to the former head honcho of 1MDB.

"In January this year, he was paid RM2.5 million as an advance payment, and will later receive another RM2.5 million after June 30.

"The contract was signed by the former prime minister," Lim said during the winding-up debate on the royal decree at Dewan Rakyat today.

Besides Arul Kanda, he also said former SRC international Sdn Bhd directors Suboh Md Yassin and Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil were paid a total RM84,583 and RM74,583 respectively for directors' fees.

He said Nik Faisal also received the monthly wages totalling RM335,000 and a RM533,000 bonus.

"A total of RM106,000 was also paid to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) on their behalf," he said.

Lim said the government is seeking to get back the RM2.5 million paid to Arul Kanda. 

Arul Kanda was brought into 1MDB in January 2015 when the company faced cashflow problems.

He was the chief architect of the rationalisation exercise to strip the company of assets and meet debt obligations.

Despite this, the new Pakatan Harapan administration revealed that Putrajaya had in fact paid RM6.98 billion on behalf of 1MDB to various creditors.

It has been confirmed that RM1.199 billion was redeemed from Khazanah Nasional Bhd last August, and that a plot of federal government land was sold Bank Negara Malaysia last December to raise the necessary funds.

Former Prime Minister Najib Razak has defended how his administration handled the servicing of 1MDB's debt.