DEWAN Rakyat Speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof said he will not interfere with the probe into alleged tampering by former prime minister Najib Razak on the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) audit report. 

He was referring to DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang’s call for Najib to be referred to the Rights and Privileges Committee, which Ariff chairs, over the alleged tampering. 

“As a speaker, I don’t interfere with the Public Accounts Committee. 

“(PAC) has a large say on what it will look into. That’s how the system works. Otherwise, it becomes unmanageable,” he said on the sidelines of the roundtable on electoral reform in the Parliament building today.

On Monday, Lim had called for Parliament to refer Najib’s to the committee following Auditor-General Madinah Mohamad’s announcement on Sunday that Najib had instructed that parts of the audit report be amended. 

Among the changes was the removal of paragraphs pertaining to 1MDB’s 2014 financial statements and a paragraph concerning the attendance of wanted businessman Low Taek Jho at a 1MDB directors’ meeting.

Meanwhile, Ariff also said that the Special Select Committee looks into major appointments of civil servants and was only an oversight body for the appointment of judges. 

He was commenting on the announcement made by the government that judiciary candidates would have to be approved by Parliament before their names are submitted to the Agong. – November 30, 2018.