KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) tabled a report last week on the procurement of littoral combatant ships (LCS), two years after starting a probe into the RM9.13 billion (US$2.05 billion) contract.
The committee said the project to construct six ships was awarded by the Ministry of Defence to Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) through direct negotiation, and the government has paid RM6.08 billion or 66.65 per cent of the cost so far.
“However, not even one of the LCS ships has been delivered. According to our timeline, five LCS ships should have been completed and handed over to us by August 2022,” said PAC chairman and Ipoh Timor MP Wong Kah Woh during a press conference last Thursday (Aug 4).
The issue first drew public attention in Aug 2020 during the tabling of the 2019 auditor-general’s report in parliament.
Altogether, the PAC held nine rounds of proceedings from November 2020 to March 2022.
Among those called up to the proceedings were former Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, current Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein who also held the position from May 2013 to May 2018, former navy head Admiral Abdul Aziz Jaafar and officials from Boustead subsidiaries.
According to Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation Berhad, the LCS is a frigate-class vessel that can perform complex naval missions covering all four dimensions of modern warfare, namely anti-air warfare, anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare and electronic warfare.
The acquisition of LCS was a project under the navy’s transformation plan to reduce the number of ship classes from 15 to five, the PAC said.
“Under the navy transformation, there were supposed to be 12 LCS. However, this contract only involved six LCS,” said the report.
Following the tabling of the PAC report, the Malaysian navy said that it fully supports the investigations of any leakages in the project and that those involved must be brought to justice as soon as possible.
It stressed that the LCS is a critical asset to maintain the country’s safety and sovereignty.
“The navy requires combat capabilities that are in line with the developments of the regional security geostrategic and geopolitical landscape,” it said in a statement on Aug 6.
