Mindef ready to submit LCS progress report every 3 months

The Defence Ministry (Mindef) has agreed with the recommendation of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to submit a progress report on the navy’s littoral combat ship (LCS) second-generation patrol vessel project every three months until the project is completed.

Deputy Defence Minister Adly Zahari said the ministry has been channelling information from all the committees and there is no problem with information not being shared with the PAC.

"Each committee has its meeting period and during that period, all committees can call any party to get information and the PAC can take note of information from the respective committee," he said at a media conference after attending the 2023 Defence Innovation Final Competition today.

In a recent report, PAC submitted five improvement recommendations, including the progress report requirement for Mindef which should be in line with the international project management standards.

The report said there are four types of committees that monitor the progress of the LCS project in addition to the PAC, namely the Technical Committee at the project team level, and the project management review (PMR), which is the project’s technical team at the Mindef level.

Apart from that, there is a Working Committee, chaired by the deputy secretary-general (Development) of Mindef, and the Project Monitoring Committee (PMC), jointly chaired by the secretary-general of Mindef and the secretary-general of the Treasury.

The construction of the LCS was embroiled in controversy when PAC revealed that not a single ship had been completed, despite the government having paid RM6.08 billion to Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd.

- Bernama