‘Abnormal’, ‘insulting’: Ex-chief auditor tells court how he felt when Arul Kanda reviewed NAD’s 1MDB Feb 2016 report

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 — Former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang expressed his disappointment that former 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) chief executive Arul Kanda Kandasamy was allowed to review the firm’s February 2016 audit report, page by page.

Ambrin recalled in court today that it was also “abnormal” for an auditee to review an audit report made by the National Audit Department (NAD), much less sit in on a meeting with other major stakeholders that eventually led to several amendments being made to 1MDB’s 2016 February audit report.

Ambrin stated that during a February 24, 2016 meeting at then chief secretary Tan Sri Ali Hamsa’s office, Arul had gone through the report “page by page” and “paragraph by paragraph”, which the former federal auditor described as “insulting”.

“There was another issue and they (NAD) were not happy that Ali Hamsa had authorised Arul Kanda to sit down with my team to review our report page by page, paragraph by paragraph, remove our references, that is abnormal.

“In normal practice, we auditors are free to express our opinion. Under those circumstances, I thought we acted professionally... but they were not happy with the report and asked us to do something we had not done before.

“I found it insulting for an auditee to be given the honour of reviewing our report, paragraph by paragraph, page by page... I was told to keep my opinion to myself and write a book about it. How could I be happy?

“In short, during the February 24 meeting, we had to do abnormal things, beyond normal practice,” he said.

Ambrin had explained the 1MDB audit was special as it was mandated by the Cabinet under Najib at the time and the NAD, and that it was only to be presented to Parliament’s Public Account Committee.

Ambrin stressed in the February 24 meeting, it was emphasised by Najib’s then principal private secretary Tan Sri Shukry Salleh and Ali Hamsa the need for the amendments in the report to be made as they did not want the Opposition then to “spin” its contents.

Final draft report vs final report 

Shafee also grilled Ambrin today on the exact definition of the February 24 report that the NAD had produced, stating it was a draft instead of a final report.

In his testimony today, Ambrin repeatedly stated that the NAD was ready to present its original 1MDB final report to the PAC in a presentation that was scheduled on February 24, 2016.

However, the report was then amended following the February 24, 2016 meeting where Ambrin said he was pressured and subsequently agreed to remove four main items from the report, leading to an amended March 1MDB audit report.

However, Ambrin agreed with Shafee’s assertion that as the auditor general, he had the authority to amend the report provided proper justification or critical information was relayed to the NAD.

Despite the amendments, Ambrin stood by the 1MDB March 2016 audit report, stating it was completed with “integrity”. He also denied being complicit in any purported attempt to “tamper” with the report.

Ambrin also stated that he was in full control of the report and disagreed with the statement made by Tan Sri Dr Madinah Mohamad that the 1MDB 2016 final audit report was “tampered with”.

‘No one put a gun to my head’

Shafee also asked Ambrin whether someone had “put a gun to your head” and specifically asked him to change the contents of the report, to which he disagreed.

Shafee also asked whether Shukry, in his official capacity then as Najib’s aide, had specifically pressured him to change the report, to which Ambrin also answered no.

But Ambrin stated that both Ali and Shukry had “emphasised” the need to make the necessary amendments so the contents of the report would not be used against the government of the day.

In this trial, Najib is accused of having misused his positions as prime minister and finance minister to order changes to the 1MDB audit report to avoid civil or criminal action, while Arul Kanda is accused of helping Najib commit the alleged offence.

The trial before High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan resumes on Wednesday.

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