KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob should sack Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein if the necessary government documents related to the littoral combat ship (LCS) project are not declassified by August 16, said DAP’s Liew Chin Tong.
The former deputy defence minister said Hishammuddin would be defying the cabinet’s consensus to declassify the governance, procurement and finance investigation committee’s (JKSTUPKK) report as well as Boustead Naval Shipyard’s (BNS) forensic audit report on the LCS project.
“If the reports are not declassified by the Defence Ministry by Tuesday, 16 August, the prime minister should sack Hishammuddin for insubordination,” Liew said in a statement.
“These two reports and other relevant documents should be declassified. For instance, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has confirmed that money from the LCS project was illegally siphoned to pay off debts incurred by BNS for the construction of the New Generation Patrol Vessels (NGPV).
“Najib’s revelation means that the discussion of LCS would not be complete if facts from the NGPV project are not fully known to the public,’’ he said, adding that another JKSTUPKK report on the NGPV should also be declassified.
On August 10, Ismail Sabri announced that the cabinet had agreed to declassify the JKSTUPKK on the LCS project and assured that parties involved in the scandal will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
In the past week, Liew as well as former defence minister Mohamad Sabu have traded barbs with Najib on the LCS saga.
Najib said that the funds for the LCS project, which was undertaken by BNS, were to cover debts accumulated by the NGPV project to build six offshore patrol vessels by a different company, PSC Industries Bhd.
PSC Industries was engaged by the government to deliver six NGPV between 1998 to 2010, with a total cost of RM9 billion. None of the vessels promised to the navy were delivered.
This led to Liew and Mohamad issuing a joint statement alleging that Najib could have committed a criminal breach of trust under the Penal Code for setting up the LCS project in a way to obtain funds to repay bad debts of an older defence project.
By declassifying the documents, Liew pointed out this would deny the culprits of the scandal the ability to hide behind the guise of “national security”.
“Corruption in the procurement of defence assets is itself a threat to national security.
“Poorly built defence equipment caused by corruption erodes the morale of our soldiers, adversely impacts combat capabilities of our forces and compromises the safety of our men,” he said.
On August 4, the Public Accounts Committee released a report on the project, highlighting the problems that led to the failure of the LCS procurement initiative, including cost overruns as well as a multi-layered structure of contracts and subcontractors to build the six LCS.
PAC had also highlighted that payment made by the government was not used in the procurement of LCS, but that RM400 million had been used by BNS to settle the bad debts of the older NGPV project.
Mohamad and Liew had also said previously that Najib cannot blame the LCS scandal on other parties as the Pekan MP had been the defence minister from 1990 until 1995, while serving a second stint from 1999 to 2008. – The Vibes, August 13, 2022
