THE forensic audit report on the littoral combat ships (LCS) scandal has been declassified, said Boustead Heavy Industries Corp (BHIC).
The report was made public in line with the Cabinet’s decision last week. It was the second of two audit reports that the Cabinet ordered to be declassified on Aug 10.
“The forensic audit was conducted on BHIC by Alliance IFA (M) Sdn Bhd,” BHIC said in a statement on Monday (Aug 22).
“Hence as per orders of the Cabinet, only the contents of the LCS forensic audit were declassified as a public document.”
BHIC noted that it had handed over the report to the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Monday, adding that it was now up to the committee to determine how and when the document would be released for public view.
Rafizi’s claims
Several revelations made by PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli in relation with the LCS scandal has been confirmed as true following the release of the project’s forensic audit report on Monday night.
According to the report, a payment of RM23.37 mil to several companies that claimed to provide technical evaluations related to the procurement of six Second Generation Patrol Vehicles (SGPV) appeared to be fake.
“Invoices for such non-existing services were used as a mode to siphon out the funds, as these companies had provided false addresses on their invoices and the payment was diverted elsewhere,” said the report.
“One of such companies belonged to the same person who was involved in Alizes Marine. The entire money released for Alizes Marine was suspected to be received by a company registered in Labuan.”
Yesterday Rafizi said that the purported “big shark” involved in the LCS scandal was Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Special Functions), Datuk Abdul Latiff Ahmad, and his alleged spouse, Zainab Mohd Salleh, via two offshore companies.
The former Pandan MP cited LCS internal probe papers that purportedly named the companies – Alizes Marine and Alizes Marine Labuan – as well as millions in payments billed for services not rendered.
The report also claimed that BHIC group internal auditor Zaily Mohamed Zaman Khan had submitted a Special Internal Audit Report in 2011, highlighting certain questionable transactions to BHIC’s group finance function involving former admiral of the Navy Tan Sri Ahmad Ramli Mohd Nor.
It said that based on the analysis of BHIC’s ledger, payments were made to three companies for technical evaluation services for the SGPV project.
They are Setaria Holdings Limited (SHL), to which a total of RM13,749,920 was paid, Sousmarin Armada Limited (SAL), to which RM8,262,285 was transferred to, and JSD Corporation Pte Limited (JSD), to which RM1,360,656 was paid.
“Payments were only supported by a single invoice without any evidence to confirm that the technical services related to PV were provided to BNS,” stated the report.
“It was confirmed that such significant transactions related to technical evaluation services were not approved by the procurement team and their engagement appeared arbitrary.
“Furthermore, the BOD had neither approved their engagement, nor had it authorised anyone to negotiate the fee quoted by such a provider of the service.” it said.
It added that based on discussions with current and former officers, the authors of the report noted that all payments were approved by Ramli and Peramjeet Singh.
“We also note that a single payment of RM1.593 mil to SHL was processed on the instructions of Peramjeet and Daniel Ebinesan,” it added.
According to the report, it was important to note that three companies mentioned above were used as “vehicles” to siphon more than RM23 mil, adding that one of them had an identical name and was registered in Malaysia as Sousmarin Armada Sdn Bhd, which was dissolved in 2012.
“One of the directors was Zainab Mohd Salleh, the same person involved with Alizes Marine, Alizes Marine Malta and Alizes Marine Labuan,” it said.
“As per company search, Zainab is also the shareholder and director of Sousmarin Armada Sdn Bhd.”
The report also noted that Zainab is the spouse of Abdul Latiff, who just hours before denied allegations that Zainab was his wife.
“Thierry (Barrier) was holding one share, which he transferred to Abdul Latiff Ahmad. It is noted that Abdul Latiff is the spouse of Zainab,” read the report.
In a brief statement in the wake of Rafizi’s explosive exposé, Abdul Latiff denied that Zainab was his spouse.
“As a Cabinet member, I am prepared to fully cooperate should the authorities wish to investigate further,” he said.
Abdul Latiff was previously a deputy defence minister with UMNO. He has, however, since switched his allegiance to Bersatu. – Aug 23, 2022
