This comes following the decision by the government to allow the Boustead Group to continue with the LCS project which has been delayed since 2019, but with conditions to be complied with by the company.
The National Patriots Association (Patriot), an army veteran’s group, called for greater transparency and accountability of the project, urging the government to provide more details on the project’s expenses.
“Announcing the continuation of the LCS project without giving details of the funds – amount, source and the number of the ships to be delivered, is half-baked,” Patriot president Brig-Gen (Rtd) Mohamed Arshad Raji said in a statement today.
“We do welcome the defence minister’s recent announcement but with mixed enthusiasm. If the project is well managed after drawing lessons from past mistakes, it has the potential for a positive spin on the economy.
“Otherwise, committing more funds on the same incompetent project and management team is (akin to) digging a deeper hole for self-burial.”
Arshad added that the revived LCS project must also be managed by a new and responsible team.
Further, he called for the government to release the outcome of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigation into the report filed by Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd (BHIC) in September 2020, on possible irregularities in the RM9 billion LCS project.
“Truth be told, from the perspective of a military operation, this has been a total screw up of the highest order. People in Putrajaya, the defence ministry, the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT), BHIC and Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) must take responsibility.
“It has also been reported that out of the RM6 billion already disbursed for the project, RM1 billion was unaccounted for. Patriot would also like to know the outcome of this investigation.
“If the funds disbursed did not reach the contractor, then where did it go? The prime minister, as well as the finance and defence ministers must answer this question.”
Meanwhile, Setiawangsa MP Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said public confidence and national interest would be better served if the government could be transparent and reveal the conditions for the continuation of the project to be complied with by the company.
“It (the government) cannot simply cite the interests of jobs, vendors and LTAT to continue the project without outlining what safeguards it has put into place to ensure that the contractor will finally be able to deliver,” he said in a Twitter post.
The PKR MP urged the government to avoid repeating its past failures in continuing the project, calling for a timeline and schedule for the completion of the ships.
He said that the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) was previously informed that Boustead Group had created written commitments with third party suppliers regarding specifications and equipment for the LCS before it was approved by the government.
“This, in turn, had an outsized influence on the design of the LCS that BNS recommended to the defence ministry, rather than taking into consideration the needs of the navy as the final user.
“It should be established that the main priority in defence procurement must be getting the best equipment for our armed forces. By this logic, the needs of the armed forces should be paramount, rather than those of companies or other interests,” he added.