MH370 Acting Transport Hishammuddin Hussein today denied Malaysia was a month late in the setting up of three ministerial committees to handle the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 crisis.

He said the committees, first announced on April 5, were merely aimed at coordinating activities related to MH370 but key bodies were already in place since the aircraft when missing on March 8.

The experts group had been set up in the early part, you had the AAIB (Air Accidents Investigation Branch) from the UK, the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) from the US, the CACC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) from China, BEA (Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses) from France, you also got Inmarsat, those are really the experts.

"So I don't understand what they (critics) are trying to get at. The ministerial committees that were set up is to coordinate whatever we are doing, simple as that," he told a press conference after surveying KLIA2 this afternoon.

The next of kin committee is led by the Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainuddin, the technical committee is headed led by Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi and the deployment of assets committee is Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri's responsibility.

More M'sian experts to Australia

In a related development, Hishammuddin said two representative from the Malaysia Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) will be included in Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) which is coordinating the search and recovery effort for Flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean.

He added that representatives from the three ministerial committee will also be deployed to Perth, Australia ,soon to discuss with the JACC on preparations going forward.

Asked about a New Straits Times (NST) front-page report today that Flight MH370 co-pilot Fariq Ab Hamid purportedly made a call on board the plane after it mysteriously cut off communications with tower controllers, Hishammuddin declined to weigh in.

"You have to ask NST 's comments about that," he said when asked to confirm the report which quoted unnamed sources.

However, later today, Hishammuddin who arrived in Kluang, Johor was quoted by Bernama apparently casting doubt on the report.

"I cannot comment because if it is true, we would have known from the beginning," he was quoted as saying.

He said he had adopted the approach not to confirm anything without any corroboration or verification since the beginning when Flight MH370 was reported missing.

He said it was irresponsible for any quarters to take the opportunity to make a baseless report.

According to Hishammuddin, the search team had received claims of finding safety jackets and boats to oil spills.

"We received numerous leads and we followed them but unfortunately, it was a roller-coaster ride, whereby we received information and investigated (them) but they were baseless," he added.

He hoped the public understood what he was going through because such baseless information not only affected operations but also the families of the passengers and the crew of the aircraft.