Speed up prosecution on LCS project, Nurul Izzah says

SHAH ALAM – The Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) needs to take immediate action following the findings relating to the construction project of the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN)’s five Littoral Combat Ships (LCS).

Permatang Pauh Parliament Member Nurul Izzah Anwar said the action must be taken to allow the prosecution to be conducted as soon as possible for the parties involved.

The urge was due to several recommendations from the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) following the viability review done by the government on Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) for the construction of the ship failed to detect the company’s financial issues.

“Among the recommendations are changes to the design selection from a SIGMA type to a GOWIND type that needs to be a future lesson and the procurement for the national defence equipment shall prioritise its ‘end user’ which is the RMN.

“Besides that, all projects and acquirement processes of the Defence Ministry must be in line with the Defence White Paper 2020-2030.

“The ministry also has to ensure a substantive acquirement plan must be presented and planned well,” she said through a video recording uploaded on her Twitter account last night.

Nurul Izzah, who is also a PAC member said the issue involved high-value projects which needed to be given serious attention by all parties especially the MACC to enable appropriate action to be taken against the relevant party.

“MACC must be quick to take action against all the findings of the PAC report, the Investigation Committee on Governance Procurement and Finance (JKSTUPKK) report as well as this forensic auditing report.”

“We want the prosecution to be accelerated,” she said.

On Thursday, PAC Director, Wong Kah Woh reportedly said the viability review (due diligence) done by the government towards the BNS company regarding the construction of LCS TLDM failed to detect the financial issues of that said company.

He said the issue was proven when the government had to pay the upfront payment of RM1.36 billion to BNS, which was against the Circular Treasury Bill No. 5 2007 that was in effect then.

That article was among the nine summaries acquired by PAC through proceedings regarding the LCS issue.