THE Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) report on the littoral combatant ships (LCS) project was tabled in Parliament last week.
The report exposed how the project was bound to fail due to wrongdoings and misdemeanours from day one.
Despite not being named in the report, former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak reacted the most to the exposure.
In the past two days, Najib tried hard to twist the clear facts exposed in the PAC report by implying that the non-completion and non-delivery of the LCS was because of the Pakatan Harapan (Pakatan) Government.
I have a few questions for Najib to answer in order for him to prove his contention that Pakatan was the one who caused the non-delivery of the LCS.
- Did Pakatan decide to use the Gowind design by the French Naval Group, against the wishes of the Royal Malaysian Navy in 2011?
- Did Pakatan cause the navy to be placed in a disadvantageous position where the contractor, Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS), only agreed to 10 out of the 17 equipment requested by the Navy, with the balance seven solely decided by BNS in 2011?
- Did Pakatan cause the appointment of the middle-man company, Contraves Advanced Devices Sdn Bhd (CAD) and Contraves Electrodynamics Sdn Bhd (CED), which the forensic report found that as a result, the price for the equipment from OEM had increased double- and triple-fold? Quoting the findings of the forensic audit on page 130 of the PAC report: “Payment done till that in 2014 was RM1.2 bil but after 2014, a lot of other payments were made to them.”
- Did Pakatan cause the misuse of the LCS project fund – i.e. RM400 mil to pay the previous debts of BNS, RM305 mil to build a centre in Putrajaya, which is outside the scope of the contract, and an RM700 mil cost-overrun due to the mismanagement of the contractor (BNS)?
- Did OEM and the sub-contractor stop work and the supply of materials and equipment as a result of Pakatan taking over the federal Government in 2018?
Anyone who read the PAC report will answer all of the above in the negative.
“Unpaid remains”
The works at the site were stopped because BNS was unable to pay OEM and the sub-contractor.
According to the PAC report, there are 164 OEM remains that are unpaid by BNS. However, this figure was much higher according to the defence minister in his statement a few days ago; with a total of 400 OEM remains.
The mismanagement of the project fund has also been admitted by BNS LCS programme director Captain Azhar Jumaat, who testified during the PAC proceedings.
In page 63 of the PAC report, he said: “Isu yang kita hadapi di dalam Boustead Naval Shipyard ini agak parah ya, di mana ia melibatkan ketirisan pengurusan kewangan.
“Bagi saya, itu adalah isu utama yang melibatkan kepada permasalahan semasa.”
Who has actually benefited from the project fund?
The problem all started in the year 2011 when Najib was the then prime minister.
Najib must come clean – why didn’t he ever take any action to find out the root cause of the problem and launch an investigation into the issue? – Aug 8, 2022
Teo Nie Ching is Kulai MP and DAP national publicity secretary.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Pic credit: The Malaysian Insight
