Auditor-general Madinah Mohamad has confirmed that former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and others had tampered with the National Audit Department's 1MDB report.
This included an order from Najib's private secretary to delete a paragraph mentioning the presence of controversial financier Low Taek Jho, who is currently on the run from authorities.
Citing a chronology prepped by the Audit Department's 1MDB team, Madinah alleged that her predecessor, Ambrin Buang, and then-chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa had been summoned to a meeting with Najib on Feb 22, 2016.
"The former prime minister had ordered the deletions of paragraphs that contained two versions of the 2014 1MDB financial statements, and called for a probe by the authorities," she said in her statement.
The next day, the 1MDB audit team was informed that the government had categorised the audit report as a "crisis."
Subsequently, on Feb 24, 2016 another meeting was held attended by Ali, Ambrin, and then-1MDB president Arul Kanda Kandasamy, along with representatives from the Finance Ministry and the Attorney-General's Chambers, to discuss the 1MDB audit report.
"As a result of these discussions, several more paragraphs in the report were ordered to be expunged and revised," she said.
Further deletions and revisions were also ordered on Feb 25 after the audit team was ordered by Ali to meet with Arul Kanda.
'Mentions of Low expunged'
A day later, on Feb 26, Najib's former private secretary Shukry Mohd Salleh then ordered a former audit director to expunge mentions of Low attending a 1MDB board of directors meeting, "on the excuse that it is sensitive, and to avoid facts from being twisted by the opposition."
The audit report was then sent to Ali on Feb 29, after which he ordered the audit team to come to his office on March 1.
On that day, the audit team met with Arul Kanda, who reviewed their audit report and asked for further deletions and revisions.
The audit report was printed the next day, and between March 4 and March 7 that year, Ambrin presented the audit report to the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.
Madinah said the unaltered report was submitted to the police and MACC for further investigations this year.
She said her statement today was ordered by the cabinet after presenting them with her report on the 1MDB tampering on Friday.
The matter of the audit report being tampered with was first raised by Ipoh Timur MP Wong Kah Woh during the Dewan Rakyat proceeding late last month.
However, Wong, who is also the PAC deputy head, was light on details.
Ambrin denied Wong's allegation that the report was "tampered" with.
