“These must be tabled for the very first Board meeting.”
If Arul Kanda fails to satisfactorily explain the massive USD7 billion unaccounted funds, for example, then the Board of Directors have now within their powers, after the removal of Article 117, to sack Arul Kanda, pointed out Pua who is also DAP National Publicity Secretary. “He must be sacked for incompetence, covering up and collusion with the fraudsters who have caused billions of dollars of losses for Malaysians.”
The new Board, stressed the MP, must carry out its fiduciary duties to the government and tax-payers. “It should ensure that the ‘rogue management’ complies with all required practices of good governance and corporate accountability.”
Pua was welcoming steps taken by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to dissolve the 1MDB Board of Advisors, remove Article 117 and change all references from “Prime Minister” to “Minister of Finance”.
Article 117 had given the Prime Minister vast powers to arbitrarily interfere in the operations of 1MDB, including the appointment of the Board of Directors and top company executives as well as all major financial transactions where his “written approval” was explicitly required.
However, warned Pua, the amendments and changes would be an absolute waste of time if the new directors do not exercise the powers entrusted to them. “They should ensure that the rogue management complies with all the required practices of good governance and corporate accountability.”
The number one item on the agenda for the Board, added Pua, must be for the company’s auditors, Deloitte, to commence and complete the much delayed audit of 1MDB for the financial year ending March 2015 and March 2016.
Without a clear and accurate picture of the financial position of 1MDB, he added, the Board would be acting in a vacuum, rushing headlong into decisions without knowing the underlying status of the company. “The auditors must be specifically directed to audit the USD7 billion (RM28 billion) of missing funds from 1MDB.”
“The Auditor-General has been unable to verify the USD7 billion due to the lack of cooperation from the management and the previous Board.”
Briefly, the sums included USD700 million and USD330 million misappropriated to Good Star Limited, a company which Bank Negara has identified as owned by Jho Low, completely unrelated to the 1MDB-Petrosaudi joint venture in 2009 and 2011.
Elsewhere, USD3.51 billion was paid to a British Virgin Islands (BVI) incorporated Aabar Investment PJS Limited, “Aabar (BVI)”, in the form of collaterals, options termination compensation and further unexplained “top-up security” payments. “Aabar (BVI) has since been found to be a fraudulent entity and dissolved since the June of last year,” reminded Pua.
Nearer home, USD940 million worth of “units” was purportedly parked at the Swiss Bank branch of BSI Bank in Singapore. BSI Bank in Singapore has since been ordered to close but the whereabouts of the USD940 million remains a mystery.
Another USD1.56 billion of investments by 1MDB’s wholly-owned foreign subsidiary, 1MDB Global Investments Limited, could also not be verified by the Auditor-General.