QUESTIONS over an audited report which Anwar Ibrahim presented to Parliament in April 1994 caused a heated exchange between Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) chairman Mohd Sidek Hassan and the former finance minister.

During the three hours that Anwar was questioned, Sidek pursued a line of questioning that Cabinet ministers were aware of the actual losses.

“Dr Mahathir (Mohamad) did not give instructions (regarding forex trading),” Anwar said, adding that he instructed former Treasury second deputy secretary-general Clifford Francis Herbert to prepare the report.

“And we met Dr Mahathir. He never gave any instructions to proceed with forex or not. He just listened.”

Sidek asked if the Cabinet was informed of the actual losses, to which Anwar replied, “Cabinet was informed of BNM’s audited report.”

“Although they knew, as far as the Cabinet was concerned they were never informed of the actual losses,” said Sidek, who questioned if the entire financial account was presented to the Cabinet.

“I am sure you are smarter than that, Datuk Seri,” Sidek added.

Sidek also insisted that the Cabinet only learnt of the RM5.7 billion in losses, which was termed as deferred expenditure.

But Anwar rebutted that during a Cabinet meeting in early 1994, he informed Cabinet members that there were exposed positions amounting to RM9.3 billion.

Sidek argued that Anwar was talking about “numbers”.

“You managed the economy and what you’re talking about now is about the accounting treatment. You knew it (about the losses)! But you chose not to inform the Cabinet,” Sidek said.

Anwar maintained that his report to Parliament, in which the RM5.7 billion figure was mentioned, was based on the final audited report and that he did not conceal any losses.

Later, Anwar’s lawyer Gurdial Singh told reporters that Anwar was “pointing out what the profit and losses were based on what was reflected in the official report.”

“He cannot deviate from that. Now the chairman (Sidek) kept insisting that (RM5.7 billion) was not the actual loss. But that is not for him to say. If that is not the actual loss, then you must take into issue the auditor-general or the governor of Bank Negara, why did you present it in this way.

“This is the gist of it… So he (Sidek) is saying ‘ignore Bank Negara, ignore the auditor-general (Ishak Taidin), you decide because there was a letter that was written, go back to that letter’,” Gurdial said.

Dr Mahathir, who was also present at today’s proceedings, told reporters later that Anwar did no wrong in sticking to the figure of RM5.7 billion in his report as finance minister to Parliament.

The former prime minister said Anwar could not add figures beyond what was handed to him by government auditors and the central bank.

“He stressed that the statement that was presented to the Cabinet showed that the losses was RM5.7 billion,” Dr Mahathir said.

“The rest, he said, was not entered into the reports by Bank Negara and the (reports) that were audited.

“He insists that is the figure that he could report. There was no suspicion that people stole money. He made his report based on what was confirmed by the audit. That was it.”

The RCI hearings will end on September 20. The panel, led by Petronas chairman Mohd Sidek Hassan, will present its findings to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on October 13. – September 7, 2017.