She said it was also Ambrin who had led the 1MDB audit exercise during his tenure of office.
Madinah said this when cross-examined by N Sivananthan, the counsel for former 1MDB chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy.
Arul Kanda is accused of abetting Najib Razak, who is standing trial for alleged abuse of power as the then prime minister and finance minister to obtain immunity from legal action and causing amendments to the finalised 1MDB audit report before it was tabled at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting in Parliament.
When Sivananthan asked Madinah if the right person to explain what transpired then was Ambrin, she replied in the affirmative. Ambrin was the auditor-general from February 2006 to February 2017.
The counsel then asked Madinah whether the auditor-general had the discretion to include or exclude items he or she thought fit in an audit report.
“True,” replied Madinah.
However, she told the court she was unaware that the National Audit Department (JAN) had not sent a confirmation letter to 1MDB as its auditee.
Sivananthan then told her that the confirmation letter was the auditee’s final opportunity to clarify and challenge the items that needed to be included in the report.
He asked Madinah if this would be considered irregular since it was not part of the 1MDB audit.
Madinah agreed with his contention.
In previous hearings, the court heard that Ambrin and the JAN officers had conducted their audit on 1MDB from March 9, 2015 to March 4, 2016. The audit was conducted at the request of Najib’s Cabinet.
They were supposed to table the findings at the PAC meeting that was scheduled for Feb 24, 2016, but it did not take place.
Instead, they were called to attend a meeting chaired by then chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa on the same day, along with other senior government officials.
After the meeting, JAN agreed to remove several items from the report. The PAC proceedings then took place on March 4, 2016.
The hearing will resume on May 20 before trial judge Zaini Mazlan.