Mariam Mokhtar
COMMENT | The littoral combat ship (LSC) scandal is worse than the 1MDB saga and yet no one has been found responsible, no former defence minister has been grilled and no explanation has been offered. It's business as usual in Putrajaya.
On Aug 21, The Edge reported that Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd (BHIC) sold its 20.77 percent stake in Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) to the Ministry of Finance (Incorporated) for a nominal sum of RM1.
To the casual observer, it looks very much like a bail-out and we are still in the dark about the role played by former defence ministers of defence, ministry officials and corrupt cronies.
What did the taxpayer do to deserve all of them?
How many more billions of ringgits of taxpayers’ money will the government spend recklessly on the wasteful Defence Ministry with its retinue of allegedly corrupt officials and crony companies?
Earlier in the year, the government decided that the scandal-ridden LCS contractor would be taken over to ensure the LCS project’s completion.
Yes, yes, yes, we know the arguments. If BNS is not saved, a bumiputera company will have to close shop, the mainly bumiputera workers will face unemployment, the company will lose talented employees and the Malay electorate will fume because nothing was done to save them.
Of lesser importance perhaps is the argument that saving the LCS project will ensure that our extensive shoreline will be protected against foreign invaders or pirates who can take over high-value cargo on containers.
Due diligence
Who would have thought that the deadliest pirates that Malaysians need protection from are on land, in the form of the former defence ministers, the main contractor for the LCS project, and the sub-contractors? The pirates live among us.
The government appears to dismiss our moral outrage. Yet again, we must learn to understand that at the end of the day, it is about votes.
We’ve been told that in BNS’s revised contract, the number of commissioned ships has been reduced to five from six, and to add insult to injury, the government will pay an additional RM11.2 billion compared to the original cost of RM9.13 billion.
The first vessel will be delivered in August 2026, the fifth in April 2029.
COMMENT | The littoral combat ship (LSC) scandal is worse than the 1MDB saga and yet no one has been found responsible, no former defence minister has been grilled and no explanation has been offered. It's business as usual in Putrajaya.
On Aug 21, The Edge reported that Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd (BHIC) sold its 20.77 percent stake in Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) to the Ministry of Finance (Incorporated) for a nominal sum of RM1.
To the casual observer, it looks very much like a bail-out and we are still in the dark about the role played by former defence ministers of defence, ministry officials and corrupt cronies.
What did the taxpayer do to deserve all of them?
How many more billions of ringgits of taxpayers’ money will the government spend recklessly on the wasteful Defence Ministry with its retinue of allegedly corrupt officials and crony companies?
Earlier in the year, the government decided that the scandal-ridden LCS contractor would be taken over to ensure the LCS project’s completion.
Yes, yes, yes, we know the arguments. If BNS is not saved, a bumiputera company will have to close shop, the mainly bumiputera workers will face unemployment, the company will lose talented employees and the Malay electorate will fume because nothing was done to save them.
Of lesser importance perhaps is the argument that saving the LCS project will ensure that our extensive shoreline will be protected against foreign invaders or pirates who can take over high-value cargo on containers.
Due diligence
Who would have thought that the deadliest pirates that Malaysians need protection from are on land, in the form of the former defence ministers, the main contractor for the LCS project, and the sub-contractors? The pirates live among us.
The government appears to dismiss our moral outrage. Yet again, we must learn to understand that at the end of the day, it is about votes.
We’ve been told that in BNS’s revised contract, the number of commissioned ships has been reduced to five from six, and to add insult to injury, the government will pay an additional RM11.2 billion compared to the original cost of RM9.13 billion.
The first vessel will be delivered in August 2026, the fifth in April 2029.
Why should we believe BNS this time? Why should we trust the Defence Ministry?
The contract to build the LCS vessels was awarded to BNS in 2013. The first of the six vessels should have been delivered in April 2019, and the last in October 2021.
Nine years from when the contract was awarded, the Public Accounts Committee told us that none of the six ships that were commissioned had been completed. Putrajaya had already paid RM6.08 billion to BNS.
Has no one in the Defence Ministry and the Finance Ministry heard about due diligence? We paid RM6 billion for acquiring ghost ships and for money to line the pockets of dirty politicians, civil servants, and cronies.
The audited accounts for BNS for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2022, showed that BNS recorded net liabilities of RM848.45 million while the losses after tax were RM150.12 million.
BHIC claimed that the RM1 selling price was determined in consideration of this latest audit.
With the liability and debt of around RM1 billion, the RM6 billion that has already been paid out, the amended cost of building the LCS of RM11 billion and perhaps, a few billion ringgits thrown in for incidental expenses means that we could be looking at the taxpayer having to fork out around RM20 billion. The 1MDB saga looks like a loose change in comparison.
Bribery allegations
On Dec 10, 2022, the newly appointed Defence Minister Mohamad Hasan, told reporters that there is 'no point talking about history' when grilled about the LCS scandal.
He said, "We will ensure that the ships are built; no point talking about history."
Mohamad claimed that he would be briefed on the LCS project to obtain a clearer picture of the multi-billion ringgit project, so he could study the background of the LCS delays and the issues involved.
Ironically, he failed to appreciate that being briefed and studying the delays and issues have a historical context. Like most Malaysian politicians, he is out of touch with the sentiments of the people.
We have lost billions of ringgits via the porous Defence Ministry which fritters away our taxpayers’ money on ghost ships, low-quality armaments and useless weaponry.
Will Mohamad understand that history gives us a chance to learn from our own and other people's past mistakes?
Defence Minister Mohamad Hasan
Defence Ministry must rate among the top five corrupt ministries. It is a heavyweight ministry. When things are purchased, they are in the hundreds of millions or billions of ringgits, with the exception of bailouts.
Over the decades, there have been several allegations of bribery and corruption in the Defence Ministry, where foreign officials have allegedly been bribed, where equipment has been lost, or gone missing during an audit, or weaponry and armament fallen off the back of a lorry. Do we hear of anyone, or any company being found guilty and punished for their crimes?
The unity government cannot simply reward failure and not tell us who was responsible for the LCS scandal and what punishment awaits them. Why is Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim sweeping more dirt under the carpet?
MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army, and the president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, Twitter.
1) "On Dec 10, 2022, the newly appointed Defence Minister Mohamad Hasan, told reporters that there is 'no point talking about history' when grilled about the LCS scandal".
ReplyDeleteComment: and with this simple logic, the scandal is buried. Najib should have used this logic to stay out of jail!
2) "Like most Malaysian politicians, he is out of touch with the sentiments of the people". (The person referred to is Mohamad Hasan)
Comment: Mariam Mokthar is wrong. Mohamad Hasan knows exactly how the rakyat thinks. Just that people like him don't give a f**k because they know they are immune to prosecution. They have already circled the wagons. Secret bank accounts have been padded or money in luggage bags delivered.
3) Importantly, in all this, where is the so-called corruption enemy number one - the MACC?
The last time the predecessor of the MACC, the ACA, underwent tutelage with the HK Corruption agency.
And if the MACC were to undergo another transformation with the number one in the 2022 Corruption Perception Index ie Denmark, will it help?
I definitely believe no matter how many transformation programmes the MACC goes through, things will always remain the same.
The MACC has long been compromised. And now the Madani government has also been compromised; all because Anwar needs all "allies and friends" to remain in power.
The bitter irony is that Hong Kong's ACA learnt from Malaysia's original ACA (then under Justice Hashim) - HK learnt from us, and we unlearnt ourselves, ending up as stupid pupil to our HK pupil, yet learning zilch
DeleteI suspect when the HK ACA was learning from the then Malaysian ACA, the Hong Kongers picked up the good points and improved on them.
DeleteAs it is sometimes said, "the student has bested the master"