KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today denied he was involved in the Defence Ministry's procurement of six Littoral Combatant Ships (LCS) for the navy.
Relating his version of the scandal of the non-delivery of the ships, as raised by the Parliament Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday, Zahid said the issue was only highlighted last year when he was no longer the Defence Minister.
"I was the Defence Minister from April 2009 till May 2013.
"However, as pointed out by (PAC chairman) Wong Kah Woh, I believe the issue on the failure of Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) Sdn Bhd to deliver the LCS accordingly was only highlighted in 2019.
"I would also like to state that these ships were being tasked to Boustead Naval Shipyard, which is owned by Boustead Holdings Berhad, and two of its largest shareholders are LTAT (The Armed Forces Fund Board) and KWAP (The Retirement Fund Incorporated), which both belong to the government," the Umno president and Bagan Datuk Member of Parliament said in a statement today.
Zahid also cited the Guidelines for Application of Direct Negotiation Procurement, dated Apr 17, 2002, which stated that the procurement of projects, particularly by way of direct negotiation, can only be made upon approval by the Finance Ministry and was not from the Defence Ministry.
On the issue of late delivery fees in 2019, Zahid said the Defence Ministry clarified that it had forwarded a Letter of Demand to recover the late delivery fees from the responsible parties to "Pegawai Pengawal" for approval, to no avail until this date.
"On this issue, I would like to state that I ceased to be the Defence Minister in 2013 and was not in the position in 2019.
"Lastly, I believe that the Ministry of Defence had also made clarifications on the issue of progressive payments. I strongly affirm that the payments were made in 2019, when I was not the Minister of Defence.
"Therefore, I had no knowledge and control over any decisions made by the Ministry to proceed with the progressive payments," he said.
While he understands that the PAC is responsible for enhancing and maintaining the government structure and administrative framework of accountability, Zahid added that the committee should exercise more caution in disclosing details of the ongoing investigation, particularly on matters of national security.
"This is especially so when the matter is at the investigation stage and that no findings have been established yet.
"This contention however should not and will not defeat my intention of giving full cooperation and my best ability to assist the PAC in the ongoing investigation," he said.
It was reported that apart from Zahid, the PAC would also summon former Royal Malaysian Navy chief Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar and the main contractor of the LCS project to complete its proceedings on the issue which was raised in the Auditor- General's Report 2019 Series 1 and the Governance, Procurement and Finance Investigation Committee's Investigation Report published last year.