First day at work as Finance Minister and Lim Guan Eng discovered 1MDB lied and Ministry of Finance (MoF) officials were denied access to certain accounts called “red files” that were only accessible to certain parties.
- 1MDB lied to Malaysians
- Previous government misrepresented financial situation to Parliament
- MoF been bailing out 1MDB to the tune of almost RM7 billion
- Lim to grill Arul Kanda, meet 1MDB directors
- Urgent question of whether 1MDB is able to pay RM143 million latest end May
- Nation’s debt actually above the RM1 trillion Dr M had earlier announced
Lim today revealed that 1MDB received almost RM7 billion in bailouts from the previous Barisan Nasional government, which was contrary to 1MDB’s claim that it was capable of paying off its own debt from its rationalisation exercise.
“Based on the list, the payments by the Finance Ministry on behalf of 1MDB has amounted to RM6.98 billion.
“The sum included payments made to the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) as part of the settlement agreement, amounting to RM5.05 billion.
“The above confirms the public suspicion that 1MDB had essentially deceived Malaysians by claiming that they have been paid via a ‘successful rationalisation exercise’.

“All this while, it has been the Finance Ministry who bailed out 1MDB,” he told a press conference in Putrajaya today.
“Worse, the list of payment to date only involves interest, coupon payments and the advance from IPIC. They have yet to take into account the billions of ringgit of debt which will be due from the year 2022,” said Lim.
Lim said that Deputy Treasurer-General Datuk Siti Zauyah Mohd Desa informed him that the most urgent item to be resolved was the payment of interest for 1MDB borrowings.
He said he will be grilling 1MDB president and chief executive Arul Kanda Kandasamy to find out whether the scandal-ridden company is able to pay its latest interest of RM143.75 million due on May 30, 2018.
“Arul Kanda has to date insisted that 1MDB is fully able to service its debt obligations. Therefore, I have given instructions for Arul Kanda to brief and clarify if 1MDB is able to pay the above sum due next week.
“I have also requested to meet the directors of 1MDB, Datuk Kamal Mohd Ali and Datuk Norazman Ayob to brief the Ministry on the state of affairs in 1MDB,” said Lim.
Another RM810.21 million worth of interest is due between September and November this year.
Lim was also shocked to find out that MoF officials were blocked from so-called ‘red files’ that were only accessible to certain parties.
“It is clear that the previous government has conducted an exercise of deception to the public about certain hot-button items, especially 1MDB and even misrepresented the financial situation to Parliament,” he said.
He said most red files were connected to 1MDB.
“We want to make sure that there are no more red files,” he added.
On the country’s fiscal situation, Lim said that the nation’s debt was actually above RM1 trillion.
He added that these figures would be made much clearer once the pertinent statistics from the relevant ministries are consolidated.