The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) visited the site of the long-stalled littoral combat ship (LCS) project for a second time today to evaluate the progress made.
In a statement, PAC chairperson Mas Ermieyati Samsudin said her team spent two hours visiting the Boustead Naval Shipyard in Lumut, Perak today to see for themselves the status of the project.
Following this, a PAC hearing was held to learn about the progress report of the project - which the Defence Ministry has to file to PAC quarterly.
This requirement was recommended by the PAC during the 14th Parliament.
"PAC is committed to tabling the LCS project progress report, which will detail the progress from Oct 2022 to May 2023, during the next sitting of Parliament between Oct 9 and Nov 30," said Mas Ermieyati.
Among the witnesses called by the PAC today were Defence Ministry deputy secretary-general (development) Shahrazat Haji Ahmad, Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) chairperson Ahmad Nazim Abd Rahman and BNS chief executive officer Azhar Jummat.
The hearing lasted three and a half hours.
Last year, PAC concluded the LCS project suffered from major delays, massive cost overruns and was built not according to the navy’s specifications.
BNS was supposed to produce six LCS for RM9 billion. The first vessel was supposed to have been delivered in 2019. Currently, none are close to completion.
Last month, Putrajaya decided to bail out BNS and increase funding to RM11.2 billion. Additionally, BNS will only have to deliver five ships instead of six. - Mkini
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