Rafizi: Mr Auditor, where’s the 1MDB report?

SteveOh: Audits are not serial soap operas that run indefinitely. They have a beginning and an end but not years later when public interest wanes.

The foundational principle of an audit is that the accounts are true and fair. And the efficacy of financial reporting is that the accounts are timely and relevant.

Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli is right in demanding the auditor-general tells the public what progress he has made and what time frame he expects the audit to be completed. It is not hard for him to do that if proper accounts have been kept.

Time is of the essence with the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) audit report. When you borrow money you know where it has gone.

What the public wants to know is where all those borrowed billions? If those responsible tell us they have been spent on this and that, all the auditor has to do is tell us whether it is true or not. How hard is that?

The audit of an investment company ought to be straightforward. It should not take more than three months at the very extreme to have the final audit report done. What is so hard about verifying the items of an income statement and balance sheet?

My comments are based on many previous years of experience as an auditor of private and public and government-owned companies abroad and in Malaysia.

Prudent: Forensic auditing is different from external auditing where the auditor is at best, just a watchdog; his/her main purpose being to gather enough information to form an opinion whether the set of accounts and financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial affairs and position of the audited entity for the period audited.

Therefore Steve Oh’s experience and recommendations as per his post is not relevant since he appears, from the description of his experience, to have been merely an external auditor.

A forensic auditor is not a watchdog but more like a bloodhound since he is not called in unless sufficient evidence of irregularities is already available as in the 1MDB case.

He/she is to determine from a legal point of view (hence the term ‘forensic’) whether any wrongs have been committed. The task requires high technical skills, experience, eye for details and sharp instincts to follow the paper trail.

Anonymous_1419577444: Rafizi made a very important point. There is very real danger that if this fiasco is left to continue in its present path, a lot of people’s savings and the country’s monies will be siphoned off and becomes irrecoverable.

As it is, the RM188 million from Tabung Haji is probably ‘gone’ and there is nothing that can be done to stop the payment pending investigation of the deal. Asking these inept people to resign is not good enough. More has to be done.

Onyourtoes: Of course, the audit is to buy time. What else can the auditor-general do? Since when are the police, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Bank Negara investigations incumbent upon the auditor-general’s report.

I think all of us are too stupid to buy into this story. I think Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) with its billions of investment by small savers should be warned not to ever get involved with 1MDB or any other scam.

Once the confidence is gone, you can see massive withdrawal by investors. That will be the real crisis. PNB chairperson Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid, you have been warned.

The Tabung Haji trio with 1MDB links

Abasir: While MACC adviser Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim is collecting his sizeable monthly cheque from the anti-corruption commission and issuing silly statements to protect his paymaster, can he find the time to educate the rest of the country whether this 1MDB-Tabung Haji land deal is an example of good governance?

Malaysian 53: So based on explanations given out, the money raised from sale to Tabung Haji will be used to pay the ‘interest’ on 1MDB loans. Is that a ‘halal’ transaction?

Fair Play: If I am not mistaken, Abdul Samad Alias is an accountant and a former president of both the Malaysian Institute of Accountants and the Malaysian Institute of Certified Public  Accountants.

He sits on the Tabung Haji investment panel and also on 1MDB advisory board. Is there any conflict of interest? Your guess is as good as mine.

Zappy-Zapzap: No wonder, 1MDB got to sell their plot of land so easily to Tabung Haji. They have interlocking directorate with Tabung Haji.

These directors draw fat obscene salaries from the Tabung Haji depositors and they are not even honest in their job. Better resign and give your jobs to more honest Malaysians, even if they aren’t Muslims.

Ren Ai: If all that is presented before us is true, then PM Najib Razak’s 1MDB is a failed legacy of a failed prime minister.

Malaysia must never walk this path again. People, we need to get to where it matters, and a good day is May 13, which is just around the corner.

May 13 can be reinvented as a day of Malaysia’s rise from the ashes, and be rid of its old stigma, towards a country that can be respected for proper governance and free from elitist cronyism politics.

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