Why was the PAC report on the new RM9.13 billion financial scandal on the six Littoral Combatant Ships (LCS) presented to Parliament on the last sitting on Parliament on August 4 when it should be tabled in Parliament in the March meeting to allow for parliamentary debate and greater public scrutiny
One question which has nagged me is why the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on the latest financial scandal in Malaysia, the RMN9.13 billion scandal on the six Littoral Combatant Ships (LCS), was presented to Parliament on the last sitting of Parliament on August 4, 2022 when it should be tabled in Parliament in the March meeting of Parliament to allow for parliamentary debate and greater public scrutiny.
This was because the last meeting of the PAC on the six LCSs was on 8th March 2022, and it is a great remiss of parliamentary responsibility and duty not to ensure that the PAC report is tabled in Parliament in March 2022, as Parliament met for 16 days from 28th February to 24th March, 2022 – which meant that there were 16 days for the PAC Report on the LCS to be tabled in the March meeting of Parliament but it was not done.
While missing the March meeting, why wasn’t the PAC Report on the LCS tabled on the first day of the of the 12-day meeting of the July/August 2022 meeting, which started on 18th July instead of on the very last day on August 4 which did not allow the issue to be scrutinised and debated in Parliament?
Somebody seems to be purposely procrastinating so that the PAC Report on the six LCS scandal does not get the public scrutiny and attention it deserves. Who is this “somebody”?
An explanation is owed to Malaysians for the delay in tabling the PAC Report on the LCS.
Can the Speaker of Parliament throw light on the matter.
What was tabled in Parliament became quite an outdated PAC Report on the LCS when it should be tabled in March.
Not a single one of the six LCS had been completed and delivered.
The first LCS was contracted to be delivered in April 2019, the second in February 2020, the third in December 2020, the fourth in October 2021, the fifth in August 2022 and the sixth in June 2023.
But while not a single LCS had been completed and delivered, there was ludicrous “launching” ceremony for the LCS1 in 2017.
But what is most deplorable is the the Raja Permaisuri Perak was involved in the ludicrous “launching” ceremony of the first LCS in 2017 which after five years have yet to be completed.
The Defence Minister, Hishamuddin Hussein, owes the Raja Permaisuri Perak an apology as she was misled to “launch” LCS1 which until today has not been completed.
What is the present status of the six LCS, five of which were supposed to be delivered by now?