Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak today sarcastically said that he was fortunate that he hasn't been charged with sodomy.

This was after the auditor-general Madinah Mohamad released a statement claiming that Najib had instructed for the audit report on 1MDB to be altered.

"It is very clear that the Harapan government is using all the power in the government, agencies and media to influence the people's thoughts to sully my name, even though the 1MDB case is awaiting trial.

"I am lucky that the Internal Security Act (ISA) had been abolished and I have not yet been charged with sodomy," he said in a Facebook posting tonight. 

Najib, in his statement, reiterated that the information expunged from the auditor-general's report on 1MDB, purportedly on the instruction of his private secretary in 2016, was not new.

He denied that it was an attempt to cover up the 1MDB scandal.

Najib repeated his lawyer's statement that information about businessperson Low Taek Jho attending a 1MDB bond meeting had been reported since 2015. 

Low is a central figure in alleged misappropriation of billions of ringgit in 1MDB funds. 

Najib is also awaiting trial over the alleged embezzlement of 1MDB funds.

Earlier today, auditor-general Madinah Mohamad confirmed that Najib had summoned her predecessor Ambrin Buang on Feb 22, 2016, and instructed that certain parts of the report be expunged.

She added that Najib's private secretary Shukry Mohd Salleh had also instructed any mention of businessperson Low Taek Jho, a central figure in the 1MDB scandal, to be removed.

Madinah also said there were several meetings between her predecessor and the 1MDB management to alter the auditor-general's report.

During Dr Mahathir Mohamad's first stint as prime minister from 1981 to 2003, his deputy Anwar Ibrahim was jailed for sodomy.

The two men have since reconciled and Anwar is set to succeed Mahathir, who returned as prime minister after the May 9 general election.

Mahathir had help seek a pardon for Anwar after the latter was jailed for the second time for sodomy in 2015, this time when Najib was prime minister.

Anwar has maintained that all the charges against him were politically motivated.