This was revealed in a written reply by the finance ministry to Tony Pua (DAP-Petaling Jaya Utara) at the Dewan Rakyat today.
Pua had asked in a written question, if Parker Randall International had begun their scrutiny of 1MDB’s accounts for the two financial years, after the firm’s former auditor, Deloitte, had officially stated that its own audit report for the same period could not be relied upon.
“Any decision on whether to re-audit 1MDB’s audited financial statements again will be made after further discussions with the new auditor,” the ministry said, referring to Parker Randall, who were appointed in January this year.
According to the ministry, the Companies Commission of Malaysia had also given 1MDB until the end of this month to call for an annual general meeting to approve its financial statements for FY15 and FY16.
Deloitte had issued a statement in July last year, saying that the audit it conducted on 1MDB in 2013 and 2014 should no longer be relied upon. Deloitte had also resigned as 1MDB’s auditor shortly after.
This came following the civil forfeiture suit filed by the United States’ Department of Justice (DoJ), claiming that more than US$3.5 billion was embezzled from 1MDB.
Pua, who is a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that was in charge of probing 1MDB, had on Oct 18 last year asked Najib to re-audit the accounts.
However, the finance ministry headed by Najib responded by saying the accounts audited were “true and transparent” according to the goings-on in 1MDB at the time.
In response to this, Pua said what the firm’s board of directors believed was irrelevant as it didn’t change the fact that the auditors themselves had deemed the audit unreliable.
1MDB had changed auditors twice prior to Deloitte. KPMG audited 1MDB’s books from 2010 to 2012 before having its services terminated in December 2013.
1MDB’s first auditor, Ernst & Young, was fired in 2010 for raising questions on investments, as previously reported by the Wall Street Journal.