LCS scandal: Declassify Ambrin's report, Kit Siang tells Hisham

Veteran MP Lim Kit Siang today challenged Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein to back his pledge to uphold transparency by declassifying a government report on the littoral combat ship (LCS) scandal.

This was Lim's response to Hishammuddin’s promise to the Dewan Negara yesterday that the Defence Ministry will be transparent on the LCS project status and provide regular updates.

The LCS project has come under public scrutiny after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) released its report indicating many problems affecting it.

Lim said if Hishammuddin is truly transparent, the latter should fulfil the first PAC recommendation, which was to declassify the Special Investigation Committee on Public Governance, Procurement and Finance of the LCS (JKUSTUPKK) headed by then auditor-general Ambrin Buang.

"Can Hishamuddin state whether he agrees with the declassification of the JKUSTUPKK report and when he proposes to implement it?

"The implementation of the PAC's first proposal to declassify the JKUSTUPKK report will be a test of Hishamuddin's commitment on the matter," he added.

On a related matter, Lim also backed Bersatu's call for a royal commission of inquiry on the LCS issue.

Lim said Bersatu had nine ministers and pondered if they would pressure Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to do so. The cabinet meets tomorrow.

The main contention raised by the PAC report was that the government had ignored the navy's design requirements and instead followed recommendations by the contractors - Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd - to use a different design.

The then navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar wrote 10 letters to protest against the design switch - of which five went to then defence minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and two to then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak but the letters were ignored.

Other key findings of the PAC are as follows:

• The government has paid RM6.083 billion since 2013 but no ship has been delivered. The first ship was supposed to arrive in 2019.

• The due diligence exercise failed to detect financial problems faced by its main contractors.

• Contract terms did not side with the government.

• The detailed design for the project has yet to be finalised.

• Cost overruns reached RM1.4 billion.

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