The Defence Ministry's internal investigations into alleged corruption involving its past deals will be continued by the new administration, said Ismail Sabri.
Ismail, who is the newly minted defence minister under the Perikatan Nasional coalition, said these include ongoing probes listed under the Defence White Paper tabled in Parliament last year.
"Internal investigations by the ministry? Yes, those that have been started (by the previous administration) will be continued," he told a press conference after chairing his first post-cabinet meeting at the Defence Ministry this morning.
"All. As I have said earlier, all investigations that have started will be continued," Ismail added when asked if this included the probe into land swap deals involving military land which allegedly caused the government to lose some RM500 million.
Last year, the then defence minister Mohamad Sabu revealed that political interests had prevailed in 13 out of 16 land swap deals that took place since 1997.
Although not naming names, Mohamad said that past prime ministers and defence ministers were involved in these deals.
The then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had also pledged that past prime ministers implicated in the land swap deals will be probed.
During today's press conference, Ismail added that there is no issue in continuing with the probes, as the Defence White Paper had been tabled in Parliament and passed by MPs.
He said the new administration will also have a look at the paper and see if they can improve it further.
"During the debate (on the white paper), a lot of opinions were shared by MPs on how the Armed Forces can be improved.
"All that we will study, and if there is a need to introduce improvement, we will do it."
On his first post-cabinet meeting with the ministry's top officials including secretary-general Muez Abd Aziz and Armed Forces chief Affendi Buang, Ismail said he was briefed on the state of readiness of the country's military.
They also discussed how the country's defence measures can be improved further, as well as on the welfare of military personnel and those who have retired.
"Another matter that we discussed was about our relationship with the people (public).
"We discussed about a tagline for the military - 'Tentera dan Rakyat Berpisah Tiada' (No divide between the army and people) - and plans for people-friendly programmes," he said. - Mkini
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