Missing GST refund probe to be completed by December, says PAC chairman

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 23): The Public Accounts Committee's (PAC) probe over the "missing" RM19.4 billion good and services tax (GST) credit returns is expected to be completed by the end of the current parliament session in December.

"We hope we will conclude and wind up this case before the end of this parliamentary session. So after the last witness, which is the present minister of finance, we will wrap up the case and make a summary and will bring it forward to the public," its chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee told reporters at the parliament today.

The PAC has summoned Former Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah this morning to testify in the case.

According to deputy PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh, who is also Ipoh Timur MP, the committee will meet Royal Malaysian Customs Director-General Datuk Seri Subromaniam Tholasy later this afternoon.

"We have called Tan Sri (Irwan) two times, so we have got whatever testimony needed from him. This afternoon we will be calling Datuk Seri Subromaniam, and tomorrow it will be the former Finance Minister I, Datuk Seri Najib (Razak). We will also have another date for the (current) minister of finance and from there we will conclude the proceedings for the GST case," Wong said.

Wong added that the committee intended the proceedings of the case to be opened to public, but is obstructed by certain legal impediments that do not allow for the proceedings to be made public.

"I know a lot of us are asking whether we can open the proceedings to the public or to the media. In fact both the chairman and I and the committee are of the view that all of the PAC proceedings, apart from those touching on security issues, shall be opened.

"But anyhow, at the moment, we are tied up by the order 85 of the standing order to prohibit us from opening the proceedings to public. In fact, yesterday I had filed in a motion to the parliament so that order 85 can be suspended so that all the proceedings can be opened.

"However, upon further discussions and further study of the matter with the Speaker of the House, there is another legal impediment that is section 9 of the Parliament Rights and Privileges Act whereby it expressly prohibits any reports of the committee or any evidence adduced in the committee be made public prior to the reports being made," he added. — theedgemarkets.com

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