LCS project: 'White knight' tries to help the government

KUALA LUMPUR - Boustead Holdings Berhad Chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof reveals that there is a hero known as white knight who tries to help the government to solve the inconsistency over the littoral combat ships (LCS) procurement project worth RM9 billion.

The former Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Perikatan Nasional Cabinet Minister said the white knight was a Bumiputera private company with a solid financial strength that came forward to solve the issue of the LCS construction project crisis through private funds.

Redzuan refused to reveal the identity of the party but explained that the private company was prepared to purchase a large portion of the shares owned by the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT) in Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) to enable them to have control of the project.

"While I was in the cabinet with the PH government, there was a proposal from a certain individual who had the financial strength to feel that he needed to present to the government through me to help and ensure that BNS was saved in terms of completing the manufacturing work.

"However, the matter did not get a consensus, and the question arises if BNS needs to be injected with private funds.

"I can't reveal the company but I can completely say that it is prepared to buy a large portion of BNS shares that LTAT held to gain the control to save the LCS project," he said in an exclusive interview with Sinar Premium at a hotel on Sunday.

He stated the government did for others to be involved in the direct consultation project because it involved the security and defence system of the country.

"We know the problems of the project started during the PH era because BNS asked for help from the government.

"However we do not want the national defence secrets to be more 'chronic' if there are other parties or individuals involved," he said.

In early August, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) revealed that the government paid RM6.983 billion to BNS for the direct consultation of the LCS project, but no ships were delivered yet.

The PAC report revealed that BNS did not fully use the funds the government received for the project, which caused the company to face overrun costs of RM1.4005 billion.

In the meantime, many leaders from Umno and Barisan Nasional pointed fingers at the PH government and said that the project was postponed and frozen in 2019, a year after PH ruled.

In October 2019, then Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu told the Dewan Rakyat that the LCS project was completed at 55.7 per cent as of the third quarter of 2019 compared to their target of 78 per cent thus making BNS fail to reach the estimated dates.

So this pushed the date of late submission for three years until 2022.