PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh said he was not sure what Zahid found wrong with the committee’s conduct, after the Umno president said the committee needed to be more sensitive in its probe as the project involved national security and was still being investigated.

Zahid had also expressed concern that any “exposure” of documents related to the controversial project might affect state secrets.

In a statement today, Wong explained that accounts by witnesses called in by PAC were typically recorded in the form of written transcripts known as the “Hansard”.

He pointed out that Zahid, who was summoned by PAC, had never made an application for any of his statements to be amended or omitted due to concerns of its “sensitivity”.

He said if the Hansard contained information of a sensitive nature, PAC would consult the Attorney-General’s Chambers if there was an application by a witness.

According to Wong, none of the witnesses had made such an application, and PAC had presented its findings based on facts, documents and statements obtained.

“As the PAC chairman, I will not allow the reason of national security to be used arbitrarily and merely to prevent the people from accessing real information about how the government spends taxpayers’ money,” he said.

Former defence minister Mohamad Sabu and his former deputy, Liew Chin Tong, had called for several documents on the LCS project to be declassified.

They agreed with PAC’s call for the governance, procurement and finance investigation committee’s report on the project to be fully declassified, and also wanted Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd’s (BNS) project forensic audit report and a former navy commander’s letter to be declassified.

Last week, PAC revealed that the defence ministry and BNS had ignored the navy’s views on the RM9 billion project.