KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s former Auditor-General, Tan Sri Dr Madinah Mohamad, has fiercely rejected claims regarding her appearance at the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH), revealing she was ordered to leave the premises despite answering a formal subpoena.
In a statement reported by BH, Madinah slammed recent assertions made by TH Chairman and RCI panel member Tan Sri Rashid Hussin as “inaccurate,” setting the record straight over allegations that she attempted to breach inquiry protocols.
Countering claims that she demanded to enter the proceedings accompanied by former National Audit Department (JAN) Financial Audit Deputy Director Dr Mona Othman, Madinah clarified that Mona was merely on standby outside the room to assist with technical queries if needed.
“I never asked to enter the proceeding room with Dr Mona,” Madinah told BH.
“The secretariat came out of the room, informed me that I did not need to enter, and asked me to go home. If bringing Dr Mona was truly an issue, why wasn’t I informed so that I could enter alone? When I asked why I was being sent home, the officer said they were unsure.”
Madinah confirmed she dutifully answered a court-issued subpoena to testify on June 3, 2022. Addressing the RCI’s decision to instead have her submit written replies to a barrage of 75 questions, she insisted that paperwork is no substitute for live testimony. While she complied by submitting an affidavit, she emphasized that panel members “needed to hear what I had to say” in person.
The former top auditor also addressed the eye-watering RM4.8 billion valuation discrepancy between JAN’s findings and a subsequent review by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Defending her team’s integrity, Madinah stressed that the gap was not proof of audit failure, but rather the result of vastly different mandates, scopes, timelines, and accounting methodologies.
JAN operates strictly under statutory mandates and the prevailing accounting standards at the time financial statements are prepared. Disparities do not mean her department overlooked losses or that PwC inflated values, she argued, warning that judging past statutory audits against retroactive frameworks undermines the country’s national audit institution.
“Assessing past audits using standards or approaches that emerged later is completely unfair,” Madinah added, cautioning against narrative-driven conclusions that unfairly tarnish the credibility of the National Audit Department. – September 4, 2026