The former prime minister said this was because it was not Shahrol who set up 1MDB but Najib Razak, who is also chairman of the state investment arm’s Board of Advisers.
Mahathir said this meant that Najib would know anything that happened in 1MDB. The bipartisan committee probing into 1MDB concluded that the affairs at the fund were “unsatisfactory”.
“Nothing can be done without his (Najib) agreement, so why punish these men?” he said, stressing that Najib should be held accountable over the unflattering report.
The elder statesman was speaking to reporters after attending a closed-door function on the Citizens’ Declaration at the Universiti Malaya alumni clubhouse.
When asked to comment on the offer by 1MDB’s board to resign following PAC’s report, Mahathir said the whole thing should be dissolved.
Earlier today, 1MDB’s board of directors decided to offer their joint resignations to the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MoF Inc) to facilitate investigations that may be carried out against the company in accordance with PAC’s recommendations.
“They have done nothing good at all.”
On Najib’s statement that his earlier allegations about RM42 billion being “missing” from 1MDB were false, based on PAC’s report, Mahathir admitted he was “wrong” for citing a smaller figure.
“I think RM50 billion is correct, but there could be more.”
In its report, which was released today, PAC confirmed that, contrary to news reports, the state investment firm did not “lose” the RM41.868 billion loan it had taken.
The money had been fully accounted for, based on the firm’s 2010 to 2014 financial statements provided in the PAC report.
The financial statement shows that in 2014, RM15.375 billion was invested in Edra Energy, RM2.271 billion invested in real estate, and the balance of RM24.22 billion was used for 1MDB Group’s other investments.
The report said the debt stood at RM5 billion in 2009 and went up to RM42 billion, compared to their assets valued at RM51 billion, in the financial year ending March 31, 2014. It spent RM2.4 billion to pay off the loan interest.
In January 2016, its debt stood at RM50 billion, compared with assets valued at RM53 billion, with 1MDB spending RM3.3 billion to pay off the loan interest between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2015, the report said.