Zahid has shot himself in the foot, corrupt procurements are not a perception - Rafizi

PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli slammed Defense Minister Zahid Hamidi for refusing to confront the reality that corruption in the Umno-BN government was the top concern of the people and to write off an unfavorable international report on Malaysia's graft in defense spending as "biased" and "unacceptble" was an act of gross irresponsibility.

"This is where Zahid shot himself in the foot. According to the Government Transformation Programme, the key measured used by Prime Minister Najib Razak to prove his administrayion is making progress in fighting corruption is Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International," Rafizi told a press conference on Wednesday.

"You cannot have the PM using the same index develop by the same organisation and yet when you have an index that is not favourable, but which is also from the same organization, you have one senior minister suddenly saying it is not acceptable."

Perception?

Rafizi also refuted Zahid's claims that corruption in military procurements was merely a "perception". According to Rafizi, the Umno-BN government habitually announced small budgets for defense spending, but later sought supplementary allocations citing cost over-runs and runaway global pricing.

He pointed to the controversial costs of Malaysia's two Scorpene submarines which were eventually revealed to have been bought at more than RM3 billion apiece, as well as the stretched-out purchase of a fleet of frigates, the costs of which have balloned from less than a billion ringgit apiece to nearly two billion each.

"We have done our analysis and crunched the numbers and we are satisfied one of the bggest leakages is from defense procurements. And plugging this leakage is central to Pakatan's policies in reforming Malaysia," said Rafizi.

In the 2012 Budget, out of a total allocation of RM251.6 bil, the Defence Ministry received RM15.2 bil. Allocation for management expenditure was RM11.9 bil (almost RM6.0bil  for salaries), while development was RM3.2 bil.

'D' score

Zahid, known for his gaffes, had set a cat among the pigeons when he accused Transparency International, United Kingdom chapter, of bias after it scored Malaysia as a 'D' in its inaugural global analysis of corruption risk in defense establishments worldwide. The ranking, which ranges from A to F, placed Malaysia in the same league as Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, Russia, Kazakhstan and Jordan.

The index was produced after a two-year study on the corruption risks of 82 countries with generally strong government institutions and rule of law. Australia and Germany topped the ranking with band A, while Asian countries that scored the highest were South Korea, Taiwan (both band B) and Japan (band C). Among Asean countries, Singapore and Thailand outperformed Malaysia, both scoring D+, while Indonesia and the Philippines fell behind Malaysia in band E.

Malaysia scored the lowest in financial risks and operations risks, with 25 per cent and 10 per cent out of 100 per cent respectively. Each government had been assessed using a questionnaire of 77 questions in five main areas of possible defence corruption risks — political, financial, personnel, operations and procurement risks.

In a bid that critics say was to preempt the negative press that is bound to follow in the wake of the poor report, Zahid had held a press conference on Tuesday even before the local chapter of Transparency International could officially unveil its report.

“We noticed that their ranking (method) varied, the method applied on Singapore’s Defence Ministry varied. The set used on us is very different so I can say this is a bias method of research,” Zahid had told reporters.

Lack of technology transfer

The minister was immediately ticked off by retired top army officers for jumping the gun and also for attacking retired general Ghaffir Abdul Hamid, who had publicly questioned the government's murky acquisition procedures, calling for greater transparency and accountability.

"I think Zahid has even forgotten when he became the Defense minister," retired general Abdul Hadi Khatab, head of PKR's security council who was also present, told the press conference.

According to Abdul Hadi, not only has Malaysia lost billions to corrupt overpricing, the country also lost out due to one-sided agreements whereby the foreign vendors did not transfer any technological knowledge.

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