Saying the LCS project must continue, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said if there is agreement that there is an issue of malpractice, those found guilty must be brought to justice. — Picture by Mukhriz Hazim
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KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 — Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said today he would convey to the Cabinet the Senate’s motion that a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) be formed to probe the allegation of irregularities in the procurement of six navy littoral combat ships (LCS) by Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS).
The move comes after most Dewan Negara members unexpectedly backed the motion that was filed by Senator Lim Hui Ying of DAP, who called for the commission to be formed given the issue has become a major scandal on a scale that critics have likened to the 1MDB fiasco.
In its report released on August 8, Parliament’s bipartisan watchdog Public Accounts Committee (PAC) noted that BNS has not delivered a single ship despite having been paid over RM6 billion to build the vessels, originally scheduled to be ready by this month.
The total value of the project has now ballooned to RM9.128 billion based on a 10-year contract from 2013 to 2023 for the supply of the six LCS.
“With the motion tabled and debated, it has given me, as the current defence minister, the opportunity to table (my explanation), whether it would be approved wallahualam (only God will know). But I am responsible for informing the public about how we plan to take this issue forward,” he said when winding up the debates.
“Our plan, if we can agree, is the LCS project must continue. If we agree that there is an issue of malpractice, those found guilty must be brought to justice. This includes myself, but it must be through the right process… I must also face justice.
“But the investigation is ongoing, and God willing, we shall arrive at a point where we will know who are the real culprits. For me, moving forward, I want to help TLDM to receive those ships, as stated under the 15-5 Transformation Plan, to help the vendors involved, and at the same time, to get information like whether to declassify… and the RCI as raised by members of the Senate, I will bring to the Cabinet.”
TLDM is the Malay abbreviation for Royal Malaysian Navy.
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