Defence Ministry land swap deals against financial regulations, says Dr M

The final report from the Governance, Procurement and Finance Investigating Committee on the Defence Ministry (Mindef) land swap deals reveals that the method used by the previous government contravenes financial regulations.

In the report, the investigating committee also identified other land swap deals which contravened the government procurement procedures, with some of the deals being done with the purpose to increase the number of voters in military camps during elections.

The report was tabled at the cabinet select committee on anti-corruption meeting chaired by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad yesterday.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mahathir said the camps were built to enable military personnel to be stationed and cast their votes in certain constituencies.

“This is an offence. We found that many land swap deals were done to build such camps. There are cases in which some camps were closed right after elections,” he said.

According to the statement issued by the committee after the meeting, legal action would be taken against those involved in the issue.

Last month, Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu disclosed that the two military camps in Paloh, Johor, and in Hutan Melintang, Perak, were built on the instructions of the previous BN government to have their voters transferred to the areas in order to achieve their political agenda.

Mindef had also submitted its internal investigation report on the land swap deals involving the two camps to the MACC after finding that it had incurred a great amount of losses to the government and had compromised national strategic interests.

- Bernama