DEFENCE minister Hishammuddin Hussein has not shown any commitment or sincerity in handling the littoral combat ship (LCS) scandal, Mohamad Sabu and Liew Chin Tong said.

The two, one a former defence minister and the other a deputy defence minister, also questioned the rationale of bringing reporters to observe the five LCSs currently under construction by Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) in Lumut, Perak, yesterday.

“Why must the ministry take the media to see the same ships since 2017. What are they trying to prove? That the ships really do exist and this project is still ongoing.”

“But according to the media, they were only taken to see the hull of LCS 1. LCS 2 can only be seen from afar. The rest of the ships are nowhere to be seen.”

“Just like Najib Razak, Hishammuddin tried to convince the public that the ships really do exist,” they said in a statement.

Yesterday, Hishammuddin said the government will focus on putting the LCS project back on track as decided by the Cabinet.

He said negotiations with vendors, original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and banks are being carried out.

Hishammuddin said this in relation to the procurement of the combat ships which became controversial following the report of the Public Accounts Committee (Pac) revealing that not a single ship had been completed even though the project contract worth RM6.083 billion stipulated that five of the six ships should be completed and handed over by August 2022.

Mohamad and Chin Tong said what is far more important is the equipment based on the detailed design rather than just the body of the ship.

They said the LCSs cannot be completed without the detailed design so any statement of completion would be meaningless.

“Najib tried to blame Pakatan Harapan for the delay but PH was only there for 22 months. BN was in power for 60 years.”

“Under PH, the project was not put on hold but it could have continued even with BNS’s financial problems. PH was ready to save the project by giving additional funds but PH was brought down.”

“Hishammuddin’s job is not to cover up or hide the truth. He has to answer several questions,” they said.

Mohamad and Liew also posed six questions that Hishammuddin had to answer.

1) Is the LCS project initiated to finance BNS’ bad debts? (RM745 million of LCS funds were used to finance the bad debts of the New Generation Patrol Vessel. Najib tried to “legalise” this payment.)

2) Who is responsible for the system changeover from Sigma to Gowind? (According to the PAC Report, former Defence Minister Zahid Hamidi changed the system in July 2011 without informing the Royal Malaysian Navy. At that time, Najib was prime minister and minister of finance)

3) Of the RM6.08 billion given to BNS, how much has been embezzled and disappeared without a trace?

4) When can the detailed design scheduled to be completed in November 2016 be finalised?

5) What is the amount of injected funds to revive the LCS project? (In 2021, BNS proposed to issue sukuk amounting to RM4 billion in addition to the remaining RM3 billion from the original LCS project allocation. Does BNS need another RM7 billion after RM 6.08 billion has been injected?)

6) What is the latest schedule for handing over ships by BNS to the Malaysian Navy? (We understand that if the LCS project starts now, LCS 1 will only be handed over to the navy in 2026). – August 14, 2022.