DEFENCE Minister Mohamad Sabu said the armed forces needs to upgrade its equipment but the ministry would review procurement agreements to ensure they were made in a transparent manner.

“We need to implement some reforms. But we also need modern and sophisticated assets. 

“What we can control is making sure the purchase of the assets are at the right value,” he said during a visit to the Royal Malaysian Air Force base in Butterworth, Penang. 

Mohamad said after being briefed by officers on operations at both the ministry and the armed forces, he believes that the top priority was to “get our assets in order”.

“I will take this up with the cabinet and hope the prime minister will approve.”

Mohamad’s comments come as the new Pakatan Harapan administration deals with a RM1 trillion national debt inherited from the previous Barisan Nasional government. 

It is reported that the air force wants to replace its Russian MiG-29 jet fighters, which are mostly grounded because maintenance issues. 

International aerospace firms have been lining up to offer their latest military jets to Malaysia.

France’s Dassault was looking to secure a deal of over US$2 billion to sell 18 Rafale fighters to Malaysia.

Another contender of the deal is a European group, which includes Britain’s BAE Systems, that built the Eurofighter Typhoon. 

The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) also hopes to embark on a multibillion ringgit 30-year transformation programme that will see it phase out some older ships that are costly to maintain and replace them with 50 new vessels.

The programme will increase and restructure the deployment of vessels, while reducing the classes of ships from 15 to five.

Mohamad said he was unable to set a timeframe on an investigation into past procurement agreements allegedly laden with corruption and misappropriation. 

“If we are to have a holistic probe, we need to have a special committee that can look into it… one like the 1MDB special task force.”

Mohamad said if there were leakages, the administration must plug it to make sure funds were prudently and properly used. 

He said although Putrajaya was taking measures to deal with the national debt, the welfare of the armed forces and the people would not be compromised. – May 26, 2018.