KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20 -- The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will be recalling the Defence Ministry’s secretary-general to get an update on progress of the recommendations on the controversial procurement process of the six littoral combat ships (LCS)

Its chairman Wong Kah Woh reportedly said that according to procedure, the secretary-general would be given two months to respond to the committee after the recommendations were tabled in Parliament, which was on August 4.

"This is the normal procedure, not just for the LCS but any case under investigation and with a report tabled by the PAC.

"So we will find a date in October to allow the ministry’s secretary general to face the PAC,” Wong was quoted saying by Sinar Harian.

He said normally they would be given a month to submit an interim report of follow up action to the PAC first.

After the interim report, and the progress report would the PAC give their summary.

The Ipoh Timor MP said that among the recommendations was to declassify the report prepared by the Committee on Procurement, Governance and Finance chaired by former auditor-general tan Sri Ambrin Buang.

He noted that the report was already declassified albeit with some parts of the report involving the names of shareholders and directors of the companies involved were redacted.

"To me, redacting such information was unnecessary because the names of directors and shareholders (of the related companies) are information that can be easily obtained through the Companies Commission. We would have like the report in its entirety to be declassified," he said.

"But at least we can see that at least one important recommendation has been implemented by the government,” he said

The LCS project had come under public scrutiny after the PAC released its report, revealing that the government had paid RM6.083 billion for six vessels since 2013 but no ship has been delivered. The first custom built 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 to use a different design.

The then navy chief Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar wrote 10 letters to protest against the design switch - five going to then defence minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and two to then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.