Blame put on directors 'but not real culprits'
Published on: Saturday, April 09, 2016
Kuala Lumpur: The 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) controversy is alive as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report did not implicate the real culprits for the firm's troubles, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim (pic) said. The former Umno Minister asserted that the resignation offer by members of the 1MDB board will do nothing to shed light on what had really transpired, and the only way for Malaysians to know the truth is by ousting the Barisan Nasional government in the next polls."I have just heard that the directors of 1MDB have all offered to resign. That's very impressive.
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That means you can tell the people that all of them were responsible for the debacle and the losses, and that they must be punished. It's been planned to play out that way, so that blame can be placed on these directors and no one else. But it changes nothing," Zaid wrote on his blog."The truth about 1MDB will never be known until a new, non-Umno government comes to power, perhaps many years from now. We are a long way from reaching closure on this matter, I can assure you".The PAC released its much-anticipated final report on the troubled state investment arm Thursday after almost a year of proceedings, and the questioning of dozens of government and 1MDB officials, including its CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy.
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Among its findings, PAC found that the 1MDB board of directors had failed to ensure the fund's management complied with good accounting practices.Despite the report's findings, Zaid claimed the PAC's investigation process was flawed as key players like Bank Negara Malaysia and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who advises 1MDB, had not been called for questioning.
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"Did they ever ask Bank Negara officials to attend their hearings? No. Did they call the Prime Minister himself? No."How can anyone expect the truth to be known if the man who is the sole shareholder, sole signatory, Finance Minister and Prime Minister all at the same time doesn't say anything about what happened in 1MDB?" he said.Zaid also noted that the panel's investigation naturally lacked sting because some of the PAC members from Barisan Nasional were handpicked to sit on the panel to ask soft questions."We are sadly far from that state of affairs. Look at the Parliamentary Accounts Committee members. Except for the brave Tony Pua, we have heard nothing from the others. They were all well selected, which is probably why they have never asked difficult questions," he wrote.Shortly after PAC released its report 1MDB's board of directors offered to resign en masse, although it insisted that it did its best to ensure the firm was run well.Former 1MDB chief executive Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi insisted that he had done no wrong. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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