The Finance Ministry cannot tell how soon 1MDB's financial statement for the year 2015 and 2016 can be completed, despite the state-owned firm appointing a new auditor in January.

This is because the audit firm still requires documents confiscated by the police for its investigation into 1MDB over two years ago, the ministry said in a parliamentary reply dated Nov 16.

"On July 8, 2015, the police confiscated various original documents from 1MDB's office. 1MDB management had contacted the police about the return of these company documents.

"Up until today, these original documents have yet to be returned to the company,” the ministry said.

"This has made it difficult for the audit process because the audit firm needs to refer to the original documents to verify the financial report.

"However, 1MDB's audit firm has initiated the audit process on the financial statement for the year 2015 and 2016 based on existing information," the ministry said.