KUALA LUMPUR – Putrajaya has been urged to immediately declassify a special report by the Governance, Procurement, and Finance Investigation Committee (JKSTUPKK) on the troubled procurement of six littoral combat ships (LCS), after the cabinet yesterday agreed to proceed with the project.
This call was made by former defence minister Mohamad Sabu and his then deputy Liew Chin Tong, as part of four recommendations to the government pertaining to yesterday’s decision.
In a joint statement today, the two Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders said the declassification of the report by JKSTUPKK, which was headed by former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang, is crucial in allowing the public to get a better understanding on what went wrong with the procurement of the warships.
They noted how the special probe then had found, among other things, RM5.94 billion of the RM9 billion project had been disbursed, despite not a single ship being delivered.
At least RM1 billion had also gone unaccounted for, they pointed out.
The pair also claimed that the announcement to proceed with the project was consistent with what PH had initially suggested during its time in federal power.
“On February 11, 2020, Ambrin and both of us briefed then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on the way forward for the LCS project and recommended that those culpable be investigated and charged, and that the project be continued,” they said.
“The announcement (by Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein) yesterday is in line with what we proposed.
“It is now back to the same position, though the navy has wasted two precious years while the project hung in the balance.”
Hishammuddin had announced in a statement yesterday that the cabinet has unanimously agreed to proceed with the project to procure the LCS, after taking into consideration the need for the Royal Malaysian Navy to have the assets and the 400 vendors involved in the project with a financial expenditure of over RM4 billion.
The project was awarded to Boustead Naval Shipyard on December 16, 2011, with the contract later signed on July 17, 2014 and the first of the six ships originally scheduled for delivery in April 2019.
However, none of the ships have been successfully delivered to this day.
Apart from declassifying the JKSTUPKK report, Mohamad and Liew also recommended that Hishammuddin and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz disclose the additional costs needed to continue with the project.
Additionally, they want the government to announce the new timeline for the project and for the Public Accounts Committee to also table its report on the LCS project to Parliament immediately. – The Vibes, April 21, 2022
