After three horror stories in its 88-year history, RMN deserves a 65th National Day relief with the establishment of a RCI into the RM9 billion LCS scandal

I congratulate the Defence Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, for going through with the declassification of two documents on the RM9 billion littoral combatant ship (LCS) scandal – the report of the Special Committee on the Procurement, Governance and Finance (JKSTUPKK) and the report from a forensic audit on the LCS project 2010- 2014 carried out by Alliance IFA (M) Sdn. Bhd., although there were redactions in these two reports which were not only unnecessary but clearly against the principles of accountability and transparency.

The JKSTUPKK report, the forensic audit report 2010-2014 in the LSC scandal and the earlier Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on the LCS scandal were three horror stories for the RMN – the most serious blow the RMN had suffered in its 88-year history.

These three reports on the “horror stories” in the RMN are more than enough justification for the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the RM9 billion LCS scandal – and I call on Hishammuddin to ensure that the Cabinet at its meeting tomorrow take the formal decision for the establishment of a RCI into the RM9 billion LCS scandal headed by a judge or former judge.

After three horror stories in its 88-year history, RMN deserves a 65th National Day relief with the establishment of a RCI into the RM9 billion LCS scandal.

The Prime Minister, Ismail Sabri had said that UMNO should address the RM9 billion LCS scandal before going to the 15th General Election and not allow the Opposition to use the issue in the way the 1MDB scandal was used in the 14th General Election.

One way for UMNO and the government to handle differently the LCS scandal from the 1MDB scandal is to establish a RCI on the LCS scandal – which was not only not done with the 1MDB scandal, Parliament , the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Judiciary were roped in to cover up the 1MDB scandal!

Would Ismail Sabri agree to the establishment of a RCI on the LCS scandal and even agree with the Opposition that the 15th General Election would not be held until the RCI had submitted its report – giving the RCI a six-month time frame to present its report?

Reading the forensic audit report on the LCS scandal is another reading of the “horror story” of abuse of power, breach of trust, corruption, deception and malpractices in military procurements which are a betrayal of the naval personnel, present and past, who sacrificed and were prepared to sacrifice their lives in the service of the nation.

The forensic audit of the LCS is an expose of a can of worms.

How, for instance, is it possible to support the following scandals exposed by the forensic audit:

• The Terms of Reference of the LCS Steering Committee (LCSSC) appear lop-sided as it gave absolute control to the then Managing Director Ahmad Ramli Haji Mohd Nor which resulted in a lack of independence of the committee.
• The LOAs (Letters of Award) issued to sub-contractors CAD/CED were not presented to the LCSSC for their approval.
• The involvement of CAD as an intermediary was without proper planning, study and evaluation of its economic advantage in an orderly manner. This minimized transparency and control of activities over CAD. Boustead Holdings became an onlooker.
• Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd ( BNS) entering shareholders’ agreement to set up a sub-contractor Contraves Advances Devices Sdn Bhd.(CAD) where BNS or Boustead Holdings group lost access to the CAD’s books of accounts and banking records despite being majority stakeholder (51%).
• By changing the definitions of components on a few occasions, the scope of work was increased to find an opportunity for issuing Variation Orders (VOs) which apparently resulted in double payment for similar services and equipment.
• The terms of the LOAs (Letters of Award) and VOs were framed in such a manner that it did not serve the best interests of BNS or the Boustead Holdings group.
• The advice of the ex-Chief of Navy (Abdul Aziz Jaafar) were ignored when he raised objections n the selection of DCNS/Naval Group- (the maker of Scorpene submarine) and over-reliance on CAD.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should also explain its thunderous silence on what I had raised for a week – why the three charges against former Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd managing director Ahmad RAmli pre-dated and had nothing to do with the LCS scandal and why MACC had not prosecuted a single person for the RM9 billion LCS scandal after over a decade?

It is interesting to read about the emergency meeting of UMNO divisional chiefs yesterday, for the RM9 billion LCS scandal has shattered the confidence of UMNO leaders that a 15th General Election victory is for them to claim.

UMNO leaders are talking about “sharks” in corruption scandals in Malaysia but the biggest question is who is the biggest “shark” in the RM9 billion LSC scandal.

PAS leader, Hadi Awang, tried to save former Prime Minister Najib Razak from Sungai Buloh Prison by coming out with a very extreme, foolish and clumsy statement, claiming that non-Muslims and non-bumiputera make up- the bulk of the “roots of corruption” in the country.

Is Hadi aware that there is not a Muslim-majority country among the top twenty countries for least corruption which is annually surveyed by Transparency International for corruption, and that there are eight Muslim-majority countries among the 20 most corrupted countries in the world?