Audit dept to complete 1MDB report by year end - PAC

The National Audit Department is expected to finalise its report on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) by the end of the year.

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Datuk Hasan Arifin said the department gave this assurance while briefing new PAC members on its interim report on 1MDB at the committee's first meeting in parliament here today.

He said this at a media conference in which PAC deputy chairman Dr Tan Seng Giaw and Dewan Rakyat secretary Datuk Roosme Hamzah were also present.

Hasan who is also Rompin Member of Parliament said PAC would continue with its proceedings on 1MDB where its former chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed left off.

"We will continue with the proceedings and summon those who were to have been called earlier," he said.

Hasan cited 1MDB president and group executive director Arul Kanda Kandasamy and former 1MDB managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Shahrul Ibrahim Halmi as among those who would be called, on a date to be fixed soon.

Arul Kanda was earlier reported to have said that he was ready to attend the proceeding by PAC.

Meanwhile, Hasan said there was no necessity to call businessman Low Taek Jho or 'Jho Low' for the proceeding and PAC would only record him as a personality, not as a witness.

He said there was also no necessity for PAC members to take the oath of secrecy as they had already taken their oath as members of parliament, of which PAC is part of the committee.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who is also Home Minister had earlier proposed for PAC to take the oath of secrecy to maintain confidentiality of the documents and information in the committee.