Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad said that his ministry had nominated Nor Salwani Muhammad for the award because of her action, which he said had exposed an abuse of power.

“We wanted to show appreciation for her action in keeping the original 1MDB audit report, although she was told to destroy it.

“We reject any form of abuse of power under the FT Ministry. A civil servant must not protect the ministers in any wrongdoing,” he said today during a Federal Territories Day celebration.

Salwani, who is a director of the National Audit Department, was among 25 people who received the Panglima Mahkota Wilayah award which carries the title of “Datuk” today.

The Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, bestowed the “Datuk” and “Datuk Seri” awards on 188 people today during an investiture ceremony at Istana Melawati here. Federal Court judge Mohd Zawawi Salleh headed the list. He was awarded the Seri Mahkota Wilayah, which carries the title Datuk Seri.

Salwani had previously testified in the trial of former prime minister Najib Razak that she had placed an audio recorder in her superior’s pencil box during a National Audit Department meeting with Ali Hamsa, who was then the chief secretary, Arul Kanda Kandasamy, then chief executive of 1MDB, and other senior government officials.

Arul was accused of abetting Najib in tampering with the audit report.

Salwani said she was to take minutes of the meeting but was told to leave the room. Former auditor-general Ambrin Buang testified that he asked Salwani to destroy all copies of the 1MDB audit report but she retained the sole original copy in her safekeeping.