by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, September 21, 1994:
Shocked that PAC Chairman, Datuk Dr. Jamaludin Jarjis, announced that PAC had accepted the ‘non-explanation’ of Bank Negara’s RM5.7 billion foreign exchange losses last year.
I am shocked that the Public Accounts Committee Chairman, Datuk Dr. Jamaludin Jarjis had announced yesterday that the PAC had accepted the explanation of Bank Negara’s RM5.7 billion foreign exchange losses last year.
Dr. Jamaluddin told, reporters after the four-hour PAC meeting yesterday that some of the PAC members had asked for more details on the loss but the information could not be divulged in the interest of the nation.
If this is the case, how could the PAC accept the explanation for Bank Negara’s colossal forex losses – when the ‘Bank Negara had not given any explanation further and additional to what had been said in parliament by the Finance Minister and his deputies.
The very fact that, the PAC had summoned Bank Negara officials, including the new Bank Negara Governor, Ahmad Mohamed Don and Deputy Governor, Khong Kim Nyoon, to examine into Bank Negara’s colossal forex losses’ must be because the PAC had not been safisfied with explanations which had been given in Parliament so far with regard to Bank Negara’s colossal forex losses.
If PAC had been satisifed with the explanations about Bank Negara’s colossal forex losses, which had been given by the Finance Minister and his deputies in the Dewan Rakyat, then there is no need for PAC to slot a special meeting on Bank Negara’s forex losses.
In the circumstances, as the Bank Negara Governor, and senior officials had sought refuge behind ‘national interest’ to refuse to divulge more information as to how Bank Negara could incur colossal forex losses, how could PAC Chairman announce that the PAC had accepted the ‘non-explanation’ by Bank Negara for its colossal forex losses?
I do not know what transpired at the PAC meeting, with regard to its examination of the Bank Negara Governor and its senior officials, as I am not a member of the PAC.
As the PAC is a committee set up by Dewan Rakyat to examine and report into government accounts, I call on Dr. Jamaluddin ‘ensure’ that the PAC report on the Bank Negara forex losses is tabled in Parliament on the first day of its sitting on October 17, so that Members of Parliament could debate and decide whether the new Bank Negara Governor’s ‘non-explanation’ for the Bank Negara’s RM30 billion forex losses is acceptable.
If the PAC Chairman is right that the PAC had accepted the ‘non-explanation’ of Bank Negara for its colossal forex losses, then the PAC should explain the reasons for its easy ‘acceptability’ of the Bank Negara’s ‘non-explanation’.