KUALA LUMPUR – With the heat on for the coming general election (GE15), PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli has promised more revelations into the littoral combat ship (LCS) scandal in the coming days.
The upcoming exposés revolve around Umno and Bersatu leaders who are supposedly behind a Singapore-based company named JSD Corp Pte Ltd that received payments totalling over a million ringgit for unimplemented works, he said in a statement today.
Citing the LCS forensic audit report, Rafizi said a total of RM1.36 million had been paid to JSD for technical services involving the procurement of second-generation patrol vessels. However, there is no evidence that the work was carried out.
“Payments were only supported by a single invoice without any evidence to confirm that the technical services related to PV (patrol vessels) were provided to Boustead Naval Shipyard,” the report had noted, according to Rafizi.
He said the report went on to point out that the transactions were not approved by the project’s procurement team, and that engagements appeared to be arbitrary.
Rafizi said future revelations on JSD will uncover the involvement of Umno and Bersatu figures, including caretaker special functions minister Datuk Seri Abdul Latiff Ahmad, in various past defence scandals.
“I’m waiting for a response from Latiff to deny that he has any relation to any individuals behind JSD, which has been named in the investigation,” Rafizi said.
The new revelations will be disclosed this Thursday, he had also told a press conference earlier today.
In his statement, Rafizi said although Latiff had announced his retirement from active politics and that he will not contest in GE15, it did not mean he was free from the allegations associated with the LCS scandal.
Rafizi added that it is hard to deny Latiff’s involvement in the LCS scandal going by the number of companies named in the forensic audit report that are purportedly linked to him.
“If the internal probe only named one company linked to Latiff, he can claim the investigation may have confused (him with other individuals named Latiff Ahmad).
“But when the probe names other firms linked to him, or other individuals identified as his business partners, obviously this evidence further strengthens the findings from the probe that Latiff had received kickbacks from the LCS project.” – The Vibes, November 1, 2022
