National Audit Department told to remove fact Jho Low attended 1MDB meetings

According to the National Audit Department (NAD), controversial businessman Jho Low had attended 1MDB board meetings.

This fact however was allegedly asked to be removed by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, through his Chief Private Secretary.

The omissions were said to be related to two material items - one on the findings on the status of the financial accounts of 1MDB, and another, regarding the presence of Jho Low attending 1MDB board meetings.

The claims by NAD, made in a report it published early Sunday, contain several prominent former government figures.

They include former chief private secretary to the prime minister Tan Sri Shukry Salleh, former chief secretary to the government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa and former chief auditor general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang.

The report also featured former 1MDB President and CEO, Arul Kanda in key decision making capacity.

It stated that on February 20, 2016, Shukry had requested NAD to present the final audit report on 1MDB to the prime minister for further deliberation.

The department then claimed that this final audit report was then presented to the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

This is why, according to NAD, there was a request to push back the PAC meeting that was originally scheduled to be held on February 24, 2016, to a new date, to facilitate such omissions.

The PAC then convened on March 4 and 7, 2016 and was presented the final audit report on 1MDB with these material omissions.

FIRST OMISSION

Following this, on February 22, 2016, Najib has requested two paragraphs to be omitted from the final audit report on 1MDB, containing the financial accounts of 1MDB for the year 2014.

This meeting, according to NAD, was in the presence Ali, Shukry and Ambrin, among others.

The reasons for these omissions, according to NAD, is that Najib wanted the proper authorities to allow for investigations to take place, in what is thought to be the investigations into the financial accounts of 1MDB as at December 31, 2014.

On February 23, 2016, NAD officially classified 1MDB as a ‘crisis’.

SECOND OMISSION

NAD claimed that Najib then asked for another omission to be made, this time, pertaining to Jho Low attending 1MDB meetings.

In a meeting on February 24, 2016, that was attended by Ali, Shukry, Ambrin and Arul, along with representatives from the Attorney General’s Office and Finance Ministry, NAD claimed that further paragraphs were also asked to be either dropped, omitted, and/or amended.

On February 25, 2016, the audit team of 1MDB was instructed by Ali to attend a meeting in his office, together with Arul, to discuss further details on the final audit report of 1MDB.

NAD claimed that Shukry, acting on behalf of Najib, allegedly instructed the former Audit Director to omit a paragraph that showed Jho Low attended a 1MDB board of directors meeting.

Shukry claimed this omission has to be done so as not to allow the opposition parties to manipulate facts of the matter.

On February 28, 2016, the final audit report on 1MDB allegedly has been amended to exclude Jho Low’s presence in the board meeting and this adulterated document was then submitted to Ali.

On March 1, 2016, Ali again summoned the audit team to his office to discuss this already heavily doctored final audit report document on 1MDB.

In this session, according to NAD, only two individuals were present, Arul and Ali himself.

In this meeting, both Arul and Ali allegedly perused the final document, upon which, further omissions and/or amendments were said to be further instructed.

The final audit report was then printed on March 2, 2016.

The next day on March 3, 2016, two copies of the report were given to Shukry by Ali.

On March 4 and 7, 2016, Ambrin presented the final audit report in front of the PAC.

According to NAD's report, the unadulterated final audit report, that did not contain any omissions, has been surrendered to the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police in 2018 for their onward action.