HIGH-RANKING government officers wanted to amend the Auditor-General’s audit report on 1Malaysia Development Bhd in 2016 for the benefit of the nation and former prime minister Najib Razak, a senior officer from the National Audit Department told the high court today.

Saadatul Nafisah Bashir Ahmad, who attended a high-level meeting on February 24, 2016, that discussed changes to the 1MDB audit report, told the court the meeting was chaired by then chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa.

The witness, who led the department’s special 1MDB audit team, was testifying today in the trial of Najib, who is charged with tampering the audit report, and former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy, who is charged with abetting him.

In her witness statement, Saadatul Nafisah said the amendments involved the removal of the following issues:

* the two conflicting versions of 1MDB’s financial statements for the year 2014; 

* any mention of Low Taek Jho or his involvement in 1MDB; 

* Bank Negara’s investigations into business dealings involving Country Group Securities Thailand and ACME Time Ltd, which were owned by Low; and,

* the delay in the issuance of RM5 billion in Islamic medium-term notes to fund a joint venture between PetroSaudi Ltd and 1MDB.

A two-hour, 40-minute-long recording of the meeting was played for the witness today, after which lead prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram led the examination-in-chief. 

Sri Ram: During those three hours, what, in your mind, your impression, was for whose benefit that these amendments suggested?

Saadatul Nafisah: I think it’s for the nation, so that some of the sensitive issues would not be raised. And, according to him (Ali), it would affect the share (stock) markets and so on. Overall, it was for the nation. That was how the KSN (Ali) looked at it. Our view was that we needed to produce and present to the PAC (Public Accounts Committee) with as much information as we could.

Sri Ram then referred to a comment in the recording by Ali, who had said, “We want to take care of our leadership”.

Sri Ram: What do you understand by that? Who is ‘our leadership’?

Saadatul Nafisah: The prime minister.

Sri Ram: In this transcript, it refers to the board of advisers of 1MDB. Do you know who the chairman of the board of advisors was?

Saadatul Nafisah: The finance minister, he is the finance minister… 

Sri Ram: And that finance minister was the accused, Najib?

Saadatul Nafisah: At that time, yes.

She said that during the meeting, it was right for her and her boss, former auditor-general Ambrin Buang, to provide opinions on the audit report, even if they contradicted the opinion of others. 

Saadatul Nafisah: Both of us were defending what we were producing in our report.

Sri Ram: You were defending your views.

Saadatul Nafisah: Yes, it was our responsibility. 

The 64-year-old witness then agreed with Sri Ram’s suggestion that, had the meeting not been held, the amendments and revised report would not have come into existence. 

Najib faces trial for using his position to remove parts of the auditor-general’s final audit report on 1MDB between February 22 and 26, 2016 at the Prime Minister’s Department before it was tabled to the PAC to protect himself from legal action.

The trial before judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan continues. – January 14, 2020.