PAC to call defence sec-gen for updates on LCS suggestions

KUALA LUMPUR – The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will again summon Defence Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Muez Abd Aziz to obtain updates on the recommendations for the controversial littoral combat ship (LCS) project. 

PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh said that based on procedures, the secretary-general was given two months to respond to the suggestions that were presented in Parliament on August 4. 

“This is a normal process, not just for the LCS project but also for other cases investigated by PAC,” Sinar Harian quoted him as saying after he had visited infrastructure upgrading works at Taman Pinggir Sg Pinji in Ipoh today.  

“We will set a date in October to call the ministry’s secretary-general for a meeting with PAC.” 

The Ipoh Timur MP added that some of the recommendations had already been carried out, such as the declassification of the Investigation Committee on Procurement, Governance and Finance’s report on the LCS issue. 

He again lamented how several sections containing details on shareholders and directors of companies involved had been redacted from the declassified report. 

“For me, details on shareholders and directors in the companies part of the LCS project is publicly available information that can be obtained by anyone from the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM),” he said. 

“As such, the government’s decision to conceal information in the declassified report is unnecessary.” 

Among the damning findings outlined in the report, which was declassified on Wednesday were how the Defence Ministry had opted for an “unproven, conceptual” Gowind design for the LCS, against the wishes of the Royal Malaysian Navy.  

It was reported yesterday that Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has ordered the forensic audit report on the LCS project to be declassified, according to Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki. 

Previously, PAC had urged the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to take prosecutive action against those behind the multi-billion ringgit issue. 

Among witnesses who were summoned to the proceedings then include Muez, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and former defence minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Subsequently, former navy chief Tan Sri Ahmad Ramli Mohd Nor became the first individual to be charged in court over the contentious LCS project. 

The former managing director of BNS pleaded not guilty to three charges of criminal breach of trust at the Kuala Lumpur sessions court on Tuesday. – The Vibes, August 20, 2022