Kuala Lumpur: The investigating officer in the 1MDB audit report trial told the High Court today that former auditor-general Ambrin Buang informed authorities he received orders to amend the report before it was tabled to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in 2016.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer Haniff Lami said this was what his team gathered when they recorded Ambrin’s statements between November and December 2018.
Cross-examined by N Sivananthan, the lawyer for Arul Kanda Kandasamy, who is accused of abetting Najib Razak in abusing his power to amend the finalised report, Haniff confirmed that Ambrin’s statement to MACC became the “starting point” of the authorities’ probe against the duo.
Sivananthan: If he (Ambrin) was not “instructed”, there would be nothing to investigate?
Haniff: Yes.
Sivananthan pointed out that when Ambrin testified in court between November 2019 and August 2020, he had said that the amendments were sanctioned by him.
“Are you aware that he said he exercised his discretion in allowing these amendments?” he asked Haniff.
The MACC officer said he did not know what Ambrin told the court.
In his testimony, Ambrin said he had met Najib at the Prime Minister’s Office on Feb 22, 2016, and told the former prime minister about two 2014 financial statements from 1MDB.
He said Najib promised him the authorities would “get to the bottom of this”.
Ambrin also told the court that he was not pressured to make changes to the audit report.
The court also heard that Ambrin and his officers attended a meeting chaired by the late chief secretary, Ali Hamsa, on Feb 24, along with Najib’s principal private secretary at the time, Shukry Salleh, senior treasury officials, an official from the attorney-general’s chambers (AGC) and Arul Kanda.
After the meeting, the auditors agreed to remove four items, including the two sets of financial statements, from the final report.
The national audit department tabled its 1MDB findings before the PAC from March 4 to 7, 2016.
Najib, who was taken to Kajang prison to serve his sentence over the SRC International corruption case last week, was present in court today.
He is accused of abusing his power to obtain immunity from legal action and causing amendments to the finalised 1MDB audit report before it was tabled to the PAC.
When Najib’s lawyer, Shafee Abdullah, asked Haniff whether he knew about Ambrin’s statement to the PAC in December 2018, the witness said the PAC proceedings attended by the former auditor-general were not included in his investigation papers.
“When the public prosecutor (Tommy Thomas) consented to press charges against them (Najib and Arul Kanda), he did not have this PAC proceeding report before him, thus failing to appreciate Ambrin’s testimony?” Shafee asked.
Haniff said he could not answer the question. “I only saw the PAC proceedings report after it was tendered in court,” he said.
During re-examination, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib asked Haniff whether the Feb 24, 2016 meeting was an exit conference to finalise the audit report, to which the MACC officer said no.
“Only the auditor and auditees need to attend, there’s no need for others,” he said, making references to the presence of Shukry, senior treasury officials, and an AGC representative at the meeting.
The hearing continues before High Court judge Zaini Mazlan on Sept 7.
Akram said Shukry will be recalled next Wednesday as Sivananthan has several questions to ask Najib’s former aide.
