KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 — Senior Minister of Defence Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein today said that the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) report and recommendations about the littoral combat ships (LCS) scandal will be scrutinised by the Ministry of Defence (Mindef).
Hishammuddin said in April the Cabinet agreed with the LCS Project Recovery Plan, allowing a mobilisation period of six months to enable negotiations with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and vendors in order to finalise the forward planning of LCS procurement as desired and required by the Royal Malaysian Navy.
“Regarding weaknesses and irregularities, I have consistently insisted that whoever is guilty remains guilty. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigation is still ongoing and this means that the parties involved in wrongdoing in this project will not get away with it,” he said.
He also said that the government had established a special administrative committee chaired by the secretary-general of the Treasury, Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the secretary-general of Mindef.
This committee is tasked with closely monitoring the situation, especially with regards to the mobilisation process, for the next six months and to report all developments to the Cabinet.
Earlier today, Public Accounts Committee chairman Wong Kah Woh revealed that cost overruns for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) project totalled RM1.4 billion, with RM400 million used to pay old debts from an old patrol vessel project.
The LCS project is the largest procurement in the history of Mindef with a total cost of RM9 billion.
The said contract began in 2013 with a ten-year time frame and six LCS ships were expected to be built and delivered to the country by the end of 2023.
