KUALA LUMPUR: Former Auditor-General Tan Sri Dr Madinah Mohamad told the High Court here that she was ‘shocked’ upon learning that her predecessor Tan Sri Ambrin Buang and National Audit Department (NAD) officer Datuk Nor Salwani Muhammad were ordered to amend and destroy the original copy of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) Audit Report.
Madinah, 66, said Nor Salwani (who is now the deputy auditor-general of NAD) had informed her of the matter before she went into a meeting room to be briefed about the amended copy.
“I was shocked that Ambrin was instructed to amend the original copy and Nor Salwani was instructed to destroy the copies meant to be tabled to the PAC (Public Accounts Committee in 2016). However, she (Nor Salwani) did not destroy the original version of the report. She kept the original version under her chair,” she said.
The 12th prosecution witness said this when cross-examined by Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah in the trial of the former premier and former 1MDB chief executive officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy for alleged tampering of the 1MDB final audit report.
Muhammad Shafee: Tan Sri, you said, you were shocked, but you did nothing on the matter until the new government (Pakatan Harapan) came in? Madinah replied “correct”.
When queried who was the culprit behind this amendment, the 12th prosecution witness answered that she did not ask Nor Salwani about it as she was rushing to the meeting.
The witness also admitted that during the one year and four months she had served under Najib’s administration, she did not try to seek clarification from Najib about the issue as it was not necessary for her to do so.
