Four years ago, during former Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s trial for tampering with audit reports, she insisted her appointment as Auditor-General was strictly on merit -- unrelated to her late husband, Umno permanent deputy chairman Rizuan Abdul Hamid, who died in May 2021 from Covid-19.
Madinah Mohamad, who served in the post from Feb 20, 2017 to Feb 22, 2019, acknowledged that she knew Rizuan was a “staunch supporter” of Najib, and had once been accused of declaring: “I will die for Najib.”
The following year, Najib and 1MDB’s former CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy were acquitted of abuse of power involving the audit of the sovereign wealth fund after the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie (answerable) case against the duo.
While Najib has been in the news with criminal and civil trials, Madinah slipped out of the limelight after the Barisan Nasional government fell in November 2022 and retired three months later.
However, on Wednesday, she was in the news again. This time, the National Audit Department (NAD), which had been under her purview, was cited in the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report into Tabung Haji.
Citing a Dec 19, 2018 letter from the AG to then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the report said a qualified audit opinion had initially been proposed unless TH recognised RM227.81 million in impairment losses on investments in subsidiaries and associate companies and addressed changes to its financial asset impairment policy.
The letter also expressed concerns over its potential impact on depositor sentiment, which the RCI said compromised the department’s independence, and that a qualified opinion should have been issued. It has no business to address or assess the response to its own audit. The ultimate responsibility is to publish the report and let the government handle the repercussions, if any.
So, the NAD’s partisan response has been explicitly exposed. Thus, the obvious question is: How many volumes of the AG’s quarterly reports, which it publishes annually, are similarly tarnished?
Auditors are supposed to play a vital role in corporate governance by providing independent oversight, ensuring financial integrity, and evaluating risk management. They act as a trusted bridge between a company's leadership and its stakeholders
According to the Corporate Governance Institute, an auditor is like an accountant crossed with a detective. After investigating a company’s financial statements, an auditor writes a report detailing the findings. https://www.thecorporategovernanceinstitute.com/insights/lexicon/what-is-an-auditor/?srsltid=AfmBOoqxVI8jCp7zsoBnJe1zKif9b_v5savimx4ZsKmqTmmr9yp4Twv8
An auditor is an independent professional who examines and verifies the accuracy of an organisation’s financial records and reports. Auditors are responsible for ensuring that financial statements are accurate and in compliance with various laws and regulations. Auditor’s also provide assurance that an organisation’s financial statements are free from misstatements and fraud.
So, can we trust the NAD, its reports and findings? Have they in the past made similar compromises under the guise of “potential impact” on government agencies vis-à-vis the taxpayers?
What assurance do we have that there is no nexus between the NAD, government agencies, politicians or political parties?
As the report said, “creative accounting” was used to make a RM3.4 billion loss to a RM1.4 billion profit? The NAD and its officers are culpable for misleading the entire natio, if not those who deposited money with Tabung Haji.
The news that the NAD may not be independent is a serious blow to public trust. If auditors give in to pressure from politicians or bosses, it becomes hard to tell if they are truly checking the books or just going along with wrongdoings.
The Tabung Haji case is not just one mistake -- it is a warning. If “creative accounting” can be used to turn billions in losses into fake profits on paper, then we need to question every report made under this system.
Auditors should protect honesty and good management, not make excuses for bad management. Malaysians who save their money in these institutions, and taxpayers who pay for government bodies, deserve clear and honest information, sans any political bias or any other form of perception, interference or instructions.
The question is not just whether NAD failed this time. It is whether similar failures are hidden in other reports, slowly destroying our trust in the very institutions that are supposed to ensure responsibility.
Until NAD is truly independent and held accountable, the public will keep asking: Can we trust the watchdogs, or have they become lapdogs?
Citizen Nades (citizen.nades22@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.
