Malaysia: 1MDB probe on hold after cabinet shake-up

By P Prem Kumar

KUALA LUMPUR

A probe into debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) by Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is to be temporarily halted after four of its members were reassigned in a cabinet reshuffle Tuesday.

PAC chief Nur Jazlan Mohamed - appointed deputy home minister by Prime Minister Najib Razak on Tuesday - told Anadolu Agency that the investigation process would be put on hold until a new committee is sworn in.

"The Parliament would have to re-convene in October, then we have to decide on the new members. Until then, the queries and report making would be halted," he said in a telephone conversation.

1MDB is under a time-sensitive probe by the auditor-general for financial mismanagement, after which a final report will be presented to the PAC to be deliberated and later presented to the Parliament.

Criticism has mounted of the finance ministry owned investment firm, established in 2009, for raking debts of RM42 billion in six years of business operations.

By parliamentary conventions, ministers and deputy ministers cannot serve in the PAC - a bi-partisan parliamentary action group comprised of eight members from the ruling party and four from the opposition.

1MDB's former CEO Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi was to face the PAC inquiry Aug. 4, while president and group executive director Arul Kanda Kandasamy was to be grilled the next day.

Mohd Hazem Abdul Rahman, who served as 1MDB's CEO from March 2013 to Jan. 2015, had also been scheduled to appear before the panel Aug. 6.

Mohamed has previously said that the PAC could not wait for the A-G's report on the troubled company, as there was too much public speculation of the investment firm's financial standing.

Outside of Mohamed, other PAC members promoted to the new cabinet were Wilfred Madius Tangau (science, technology and innovation minister), Reezal Merican Naina Merican (deputy foreign minister) and Mas Ermieyati Samsudin (deputy tourism and culture minister).

Earlier this month, international probes into Malaysian state-owned investment arm 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) claimed that billions of Ringgit (hundreds of millions of dollars) was channelled to personal bank accounts belonging to premier Najib Razak.

Razak has said that he has never taken funds for personal gain, whether it is from 1MDB, Finance Ministry-owned SRC International or other entities.

One of those sacked in Tuesday's reshuffle was the deputy president of Malaysia's ruling party, who had called on Razak to explain his role in the growing scandal.