National Audit Department (NAD) director Nor Salwani Muhammad said the PAC presentation was, however, called off on Feb 24, 2016.

Instead, then auditor-general Ambrin Buang, Salwani, and other NAD officers were called to a meeting chaired by then chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa on the same day.

Other senior government servants such as Najib’s principal private secretary at the time, Shukry Mohd Salleh, Treasury officials, an official from the Attorney-General’s Chambers and Arul Kanda were also present.

The meeting was believed to be where decisions were made to remove or change certain parts of the audit report.

The court previously heard that following the meeting, government auditors agreed to remove four items, including two conflicting 1MDB financial statements for 2014, from the final report. NAD eventually tabled its 1MDB findings before the PAC from March 4 to 7, 2016.

Ad hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram asked Salwani who initiated the meeting between government officials and NAD, the witness said it was called by the Chief Secretary’s Office.

Sri Ram: Was the chief secretary your auditee?

Salwani: No.

Ali, who testified last year, said that the “coordination” meeting between NAD and senior officials would not have taken place if he and Ambrin had not met Najib in an earlier meeting on Feb 22, 2016.

Najib is accused of abusing his powers as prime minister and finance minister in order to obtain immunity from legal action and causing amendments to the finalised 1MDB audit report before it was tabled to the PAC while former 1MDB chief executive Arul Kanda is accused of abetting him.

Earlier, during cross-examination, Salwani was asked by Arul Kanda’s lawyer, N Sivananthan, on whether the Feb 24, 2016 meeting was another “exit conference”.

Sivananthan pointed out that during the Dec 16, 2015 meeting, 1MDB general counsel Ivan Chen requested to hold another meeting with NAD. He added that it was not unusual for the auditee to request changes to be made to the draft audit report.

In response, Salwani said she was not aware of Chen’s request.

Sivananthan: The meeting on Feb 24, 2016 was in fact another exit conference held at 1MDB’s request?

Salwani: I disagree.

She added that the meeting conducted on the said date was not an exit conference as NAD had already completed its audit.

In 2016, Salwani was the coordinator for NAD’s special audit team tasked with inspecting 1MDB’s financial health.

The hearing continues before High Court Judge Mohamad Zaini Mazlan on Aug 11.