FORMER defence minister Mohamad Sabu has urged Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob not to delay the declassification of the report made by the governance, procurement and finance investigation committee (JKSTUPKK) on the littoral combat ship (LCS) scandal.

In a statement made today, he said it had been more than a week since the Cabinet had unanimously agreed to declassify the report.

“It has been more than a week but nothing has happened. I urge Ismail to keep his promise and not turn his back on the decision agreed by the Cabinet,” said Mat Sabu.

According to the Amanah president, from May 2018 to April 2021, JKSTUPKK had investigated 39 cases, among them 26 cases involving the Ministry of Defence.

The JKSTUPKK investigation covered nine ministries, and as a whole involved the government’s budget of RM47 billion.

According to JKSTUPKK, among the significant weaknesses included poor planning, non-comprehensive due diligence, weakness of contract clauses, weakness of contract enforcement, failure to follow guidelines, prototype purchases, procurement through direct negotiations that were less transparent, lack of monitoring, and intervention of administrative members in the procurement process.

The LCS matter was one of the most unacceptable cases.

“In the first Cabinet meeting that I attended after being appointed as a minister, I proposed to establish the Governance, Procurement and Finance Investigation Committee headed by the former Auditor-General Ambrin Buang.

“This investigation committee aimed to investigate governance, procurement and finance in various ministries,” he said.

Last week, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) released its report on the ministry’s purchase of LCSs from Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd through direct negotiations.

Although the government had already paid RM6.08 billion in costs, none of the ships had been delivered.

According to the original schedule, five LCSs should have been delivered to the ministry this month.

Following that Senior Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the government would focus on putting the littoral combat ship project back on track as decided by the Cabinet.

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

Meanwhile, Ismail had said the government would declassify the reports pertaining to the LCS scandal. – August 15, 2022.