DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has raised the question about the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) next course of action in light of the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on the procurement of the littoral combat ship (LCS).
Lim’s query came after the bi-partisan committee’s 250-page report was tabled in Dewan Rakyat on Thursday (Aug 4).
The PAC revealed that the defence ministry and Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) had ignored the navy’s views on the LCS project.
Despite the government paying out RM6.083 bil for the project, PAC chairperson Wong Kah Woh said that none of the ships has been completed, although based on original schedule five ships should have been completed and delivered by August 2022.
“It is sad to see how the Government had again failed Malaysians with another mega scandal exposing a loss of RM6 bil,” Lim said in a statement.
He said that the scandal had proven MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki wrong when he earlier dismissed Transparency International’s (TI) annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI) as based on mere perceptions and not facts.
“While former navy chief Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar has described the decision-making process in LCS as ‘gravely wrong’, the PAC report told us that ‘everything was wrong’ in the project from the appointment of the contractor and the choice of vessel design to how the taxpayers’ monies were spent, burnt and squandered,” Lim remarked.
At a press conference on Thursday (Aug 4) PAC’s Wong said that the initial Sigma model ships chosen by the navy were approved by the Defence Ministry.
However, this was changed to the Gowind design on July 11, 2011 after BNS recommended it to then defence minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi three days prior.
Abdul Aziz said back then that “something was gravely wrong” with the decision.
“Zahid has chosen to keep quiet in the past 24 hours despite being named in the PAC report for his decision to choose the Gowind design by the French Navy Group for LCS against the wishes of the navy as the end user to have the Dutch Sigma design,” Lim noted.
“As such, Zahid owes the nation an explanation on why he made such a decision favouring the contractor as this is an issue involving national security and the navy are the ones who go to war using the LCS.
“What has driven Zahid to ignore the letters of protest sent by Abdul Aziz which put the navy’s and the nation’s interests at stake?
“This is a case where the then defence minister is guilty of disregarding the defence interests of the country!”
Lim further pointed out that in 2020 former deputy defence minister Liew Chin Tong had urged Putrajaya to investigate the missing RM1 bil linked to the LCS project.
“The PAC report may have given MACC some clues if they are clueless about the missing money. It is shocking to note that the PAC Report revealed not only RM1 bil but RM1.4 bil had disappeared.”
Lim said a sum of RM400 mil was used by the contractor to pay off its old debt, RM305 mil was used to build a centre in Cyberjaya “relatively unrelated to the ship-building” and RM700 mil was classified as cost-overrun by the contractor.
“The ball is now in MACC’s court to investigate each and every aspect of the spending and to tell the people whether the money was actually siphoned off and who had eventually benefited from it,” he said.
“Can Azam tell Malaysians what MACC is doing about the PAC report?” – Aug 5, 2022
