THE government has no choice but to take over the company responsible for the construction of the littoral combat ship (LCS), which is Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS), in order to complete the project. 

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said this was because the government had spent RM6 billion on the LCS project. 

“There are on-going projects which we must complete including LCS. We have no choice after having spent RM6 billion. We cannot just close it down; we have to take over to complete the project,” he said when met by reporters after opening the Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair 2023 at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur today.

He was commenting on the announcement by Defence Minister Mohamad Hasan that the Finance Ministry had set up a special purpose vehicle to take over BNS, which was responsible for the LCS project as a subsidiary of the ministry. 

Anwar, however, said the government would issue a complete statement on the takeover. 

Earlier, the construction of LCS was embroiled in controversy when the Public Accounts Committee revealed that no units of LCS were completed even though the government had paid RM6.083 billion to BNS. – Bernama, May 27, 2023.