PRIME Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob is irresponsible for prioritising an alleged verbal abuse incident by a senior government official instead of taking action over the RM9 billion littoral combat ship (LCS) scandal, Lim Guan Eng said.

The DAP chairman said that Ismail has failed to make any comment or initiate any action after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) released its report on the controversial LCS project last week.

“The PAC report revealed abuse of power, cheating, and even misappropriation of funds.

“RM6 billion of public funds is a huge sum of money, and would definitely deserve equal if not more weight compared to the alleged verbal abuse incident,” he stated.

Lim said the government acted with surprising speed by forming a committee to probe into the alleged verbal abuse at KLIA but did not do the same on the LCS issue.

“In contrast, Ismail has so far failed to make any comment or take any action since PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh published the findings last week seeking punishment against those responsible for approving the RM9 billion to purchase the 6 LCS built by BNS (Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd).”

He said that in 2011, the government chose to change the Sigma LCS to Gowind LCS against the advice of the Royal Malaysian Navy.

“Despite paying more than RM6 billion, not a single LCS has been delivered.

“If such a high-level committee can be formed over the alleged verbal abuse incident in KLIA, why is a similar high-level committee not formed to act and punish those responsible for the RM9 billion LCS scandal?”

Lim was commenting on the announcement by the chief secretary to the government that Attorney-General Idrus Harun will lead the committee set up to investigate the incident involving a senior government official and an immigration officer at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) recently.

Others on the committee included Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani, Auditor-General Nik Azman Nik Abdul Majid and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Azam Baki.

On Wednesday, an immigration officer at KLIA was said to have been berated in public by a high-ranking government official because no one was at the VIP counter to attend to the latter when he arrived.

However, the Public Service Department (PSD) denied accusations that its director-general had verbally abused the immigration officer.

Last week, the PAC said the government’s due diligence on BNS had failed to detect the company’s financial weaknesses.

It said that the government had to pay an upfront fee of RM1.36 billion to BNS, which was against protocol.

The PAC said that BNS’s poor financials were caused by abuse of power and mismanagement.

Lim said that DAP had no objection if the government deemed such a high-level committee as necessary to probe an alleged verbal abuse incident.

He, however, said that similar attention and importance should be placed on the LCS scandal when RM6 billion had been paid without getting even a single ship.

“Ismail must realise that the RM6 billion paid and probably lost without a single ship being delivered is a matter of public importance that demands full accountability and transparency.

“The public wants action against those responsible since all the investigations have been completed by the PAC.”

“And yet, the PAC findings do not even merit the formation of the same high-level committee as the alleged verbal abuse incident.”

He added that Ismail’s unholy silence and inertia over the RM9 billion LCS scandal is a sad reflection of his lack of discernment in distinguishing between what is right and wrong as well as what should be prioritised to govern the country well. – August 8, 2022.