The Special Committee on Corruption has lauded the statement by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob on the cabinet’s proposal to declassify the forensic audit report on the government’s procurement of six littoral combat ships (LCS) and urged the MACC to dig deeper into the scandal.
In a statement today, Hassan Abdul Karim (above), on behalf of the special committee, also welcomed the government's decision to declassify the Special Committee on Governance Investigation, Government Procurement and Finance's report chaired by former auditor-general Ambrin Buang.
"The committee would like to advise and recommend to the MACC to continue with a more detailed investigation into the LCS issue because there is fresh evidence from the audit report that was tabled in Parliament.
"However, we would like to recommend a follow-up investigation by the MACC into the Public Accounts Committee's revelation on the LCS procurement.
“The MACC should go through the PAC’s report on the irregularities in the RM9 billion project,” said Hassan.
Proactive action needed
The Pasir Gudang MP also urged Attorney-General Idrus Harun to take proactive and more serious action by immediately preparing a complete investigation paper on the failure of LCS.
"The prosecutors should immediately bring the case to court and charge those who committed an offence in the LCS project," said Hassan.
"The committee opined that the setting up of a royal commission of inquiry into the LCS is not necessary because the MACC has already submitted its investigating paper to the public prosecutor.”
Ismail Sabri said on Wednesday (Aug 10) that the cabinet proposed the report from a forensic audit conducted in 2019 be declassified.
This is on top of the declassification of a report by Ambrin's committee.
The prime minister also stressed that those responsible for the LCS scandal will not be spared.
The LCS project has come under public scrutiny after the PAC released its report, revealing many issues with it.
Among others, the government has paid RM6.083 billion since 2013 but no ship has been delivered. The first ship was supposed to arrive in 2019.
The PAC report also raised the contention that the government ignored the navy's design requirements and instead followed recommendations by the contractor - Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd - to use a different ship design.
The then navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar wrote 10 letters to protest against the design switch - five going to then defence minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and two to then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak - to no avail. - Mkini
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