AS the Government rushes to prepare for an earlier Budget 2023, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang wants to know if Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein is doing the same for his first progress report on the RM9 bil littoral combat ship (LCS) scandal.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar recently confirmed that Parliament will resume on Oct 3, adding that the change in the parliamentary calendar had nothing to do with the holding of early general elections.
Lim said he agrees with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob that it was not unusual to have the Budget day in Parliament fixed in early October, as during the time of former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the Budget was always tabled in September from 2004 to 2008.
“In fact, during the last term of the first premiership of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad from 2000 to 2003, the Budget Day in Parliament always fell in September,” he added in a statement today.
However, the Iskandar Puteri MP asked if Hishammuddin was prepared to submit his first progress report to Parliament on the LCS scandal, which the former said was developing into a “new 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal”.
Hishammuddin had previously said that he will report the schedule and progress of LCS construction project in stages, and that he was given six months by the Cabinet in April to mobilise efforts to revive the project.
“The six-month period will be up by October,” Lim noted. “Is Hishammuddin in a position to submit his first report on the first day of Parliament on Oct 3?”
“Why reduced two LCS to one?”
Lim said Hishammuddin should also explain to Parliament why the Defence Ministry reduced from two LCS to one which must be completed and delivered by the contractor with no additional Government funds.
He noted that when Hishammuddin appeared before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Jan 25, 2022, he spoke about “corporate restructuring” of the RM9 bil LCS contract and the LCS contractor, Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS), having to deliver two LCS without any new cost to the Government.
He added that Hishammuddin should further explain to Parliament why he has been “unable to convince the Cabinet” to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the scandal.
The LCS scandal is the talk of the town after it was revealed that not a single ship had been completed – although the Government spent RM6 bil already and five ships should have been delivered to the Royal Malaysian Navy by now.
In 2011, the defence ministry under the Barisan Nasional (BN) Government awarded the RM9 bil LCS contract to BNS with the contract signed in 2014.
UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was the defence minister from 2009 to 2013, while Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Special Functions) Datuk Abdul Latiff Ahmad, then with UMNO, was his deputy from 2008.
Amid the blame game by the opposition and leaders from the previous Government, Hishammuddin has said his ministry will comply with all of the PAC’s recommendations for the project.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), meanwhile, has completed its investigation into the LCS scandal for alleged graft and recommended charges to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC). – Aug 27, 2022
