PAC report on LCS: Lim challenges MACC to state its next move

 

Veteran MP Lim Kit Siang has urged the MACC to state whether it will act on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) findings of irregularities in the procurement of the littoral combat ship project (LCS).

In a statement today, Lim said it was "shocking" that the PAC had discovered that RM1.4 billion of the RM6 billion disbursed had "disappeared".

"The ball is in the MACC's court now to investigate each and every aspect of the spending and tell the people whether the money was actually siphoned off and who had eventually benefited from it.

"Can the MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki tell Malaysians what the MACC is doing about the PAC report as well as explain why it had not acted earlier?" said Lim.

The PAC report was tabled to the Dewan Rakyat yesterday which accused the defence ministry and then minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi of ignoring the Navy's requirement for the LCS.

Zahid was accused of siding with the contractor's insistence on using a ship design which the navy didn't want.

The first of the six LCS was supposed to be delivered in 2019. As of today, none has been delivered but 66 percent of the allocated funds for the project had already been drawn down.

Lim said Zahid owned the public an explanation on why he favoured the contractors and ignored then navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar's repeated protests.

"This is an issue involving national security and the navy are the ones who go to war using the LCS.

"What has driven Zahid to ignore the letters of protest sent by Abdul Aziz which put the navy's and the nation's interests at stake?

"This is a case where the defence minister was guilty of disregarding the defence interests of the country," said Lim. - Mkini