250-page report on LCS scandal out today

KUALA LUMPUR: A report on the scandal involving the multibillion-ringgit procurement of Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) will be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat today, says Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Wong Kah Woh.

He said the report would be placed on the tables of MPs so that they could study the report.

“The report contains 250 pages which does not include text from the Hansard proceedings.

“It will contain several improvements with regard to its contents to make it easier for the public to understand the issues contained in the PAC report,” he told reporters at the Parliament House media centre here yesterday.

Wong said the PAC faced challenges in completing the report, which had been hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic and its resultant movement control orders.

The PAC began its probe into the procurement of the ships in late 2020 and had called several officials to testify before it.

The issue was first raised in the 2019 Auditor-General’s Report, with the PAC calling former defence minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and several former senior officials to testify.

The RM9bil LCS project was awarded in 2014 and the order was for six of the ships to be constructed by Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS).

The ships should have been delivered in April 2019 but so far, none has been built despite the government having paid RM6bil to the company.

In November 2020, BNS parent company Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation Bhd (BHIC) lodged a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on the possibility of irregularities concerning the LCS project.

Several individuals have since been arrested by the MACC in connection with the case, including a former top BHIC official.

On July 27, Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz told the Dewan Rakyat that the MACC had completed its investigations into the scandal.

He said the MACC had sufficient evidence to charge several individuals and it wass now up to the Attorney General to decide the next course of action.