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KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Defense has issued a notification of claim for settled and proven damages amounting to 180 million ringgit for the delay in the acquisition of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).
Chief Security Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the notice was issued after the ministry conducted an investigation into the Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) following a report on the delay.
“Out of the total amount of RM180 million, RM80.6 million was raised by compensation in October 2020,” he said closing the debate on the 2021 supply bill in Dewan Negara today.
The LCS construction project, worth RM9,128 billion, was awarded to BNS by the government through the Ministry of Defense and a total of RM6 billion has been paid for the construction of six ships.
However, to date, not a single LCS has been delivered to the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN), although the contractual agreement, signed in January 2014, stipulates that the first ship was to be delivered to the government in April 2019. .
The issue was reported in the 2019 Auditor General’s Report and in the Investigation Report of the Governance, Procurement and Finance Investigation Committee published last year.
Following this, the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said it would call former Defense Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi regarding the issue of the non-delivery of LCS to the Navy.
PAC President Wong Kah Woh said former RMN chief Aziz Jaafar and the main contractor for the LCS project, BNS, would also be called.
Zahid said the lack of supply from the ships arose in 2019 when he no longer held the post of defense minister.
According to him, he held the position from April 2009 to May 2013, highlighting that he was not aware of the lack of delivery.
