Its chairman Wong Kah Woh said Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation (BHIC), which is the owner of the report, claimed it had earlier passed the report to the defence ministry (Mindef).

Wong said according to BHIC, Mindef “passed back a copy of the redacted report” to it. BHIC said it was okay with the arrangement and so passed the report on to the PAC.

Mindef, however, claimed it had never received any copy of the report from BHIC nor had it given instructions for its redaction, Wong said.

BHIC is a major shareholder of Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS), the defence ministry’s contractor tasked with building six frigates under the LCS project.

“PAC has since requested Mindef to get an explanation from BHIC and present it to the committee,” he said in a statement.

Wong said there was no need for details of the investigation carried out by the governance, procurement and finance investigation committee to be redacted in its audit report on the LCS controversy.

“We are also dissatisfied with the explanation given by the Attorney-General’s Chambers on the need to redact the report by the committee. Neither can we accept it.”

Wong went on to call for the report to be fully declassified as previously recommended by the committee.

The LCS project has come under much scrutiny after the PAC revealed that not a single ship had been completed although Putrajaya had spent RM6.08 billion on the project, which was given to BNS through direct negotiations.