While many reports on the PAC’s findings have touched on the non-delivery of the ships and its inflated cost, an excerpt in the 247-page report claimed there was manipulation by members of BHIC’s senior management in the RM9.13 billion project.

Citing statements extracted from a report issued by a forensic auditor, the PAC report alleged that the forensic review conducted revealed potential breaches of fiduciary duty and responsibilities on the part of several key members of BHIC’s management.

“Reviews and analysis of the related documents and the history of related transactions indicated irregularities, deception and mismanagement involving senior officers and subordinates of BHIC and BNC (sic),” the report said.

These senior officers, the PAC said, made key decisions on their own, sidestepping their subordinates, including issuing letters of award (LoAs) and variation orders (VOs) for the LCS project, allegedly “directly ignoring the basic norms of corporate governance”.

The value of these LoAs ran into the hundreds of millions of ringgit.

The report also showed that the technical and commercial committees were often prevented from playing their roles in the LCS project. Among others, it also claimed that the LoAs were not vetted by BHIC’s legal team.

Last week, the PAC said the defence ministry and Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) had ignored the navy’s views on the LCS project.

PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh said not a single ship had been completed although RM6 billion had been spent by Putrajaya over the project given to BNS via direct negotiations. The navy should have received five of the ships by August this year.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the government will declassify the governance, procurement and finance investigation committee’s report on the project.

Ismail also said the Cabinet had directed the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to expedite its probe on the project.