KUALA LUMPUR (June 12): Muar Member of Parliament Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman called for a thorough scrutiny of the recent increase in construction costs and reduction in vessels for the littoral combat ship (LCS) project.
In a press conference on Monday (June 12), Syed Saddiq said the unity government is using the same reasons as the previous Barisan Nasional-led government regarding issues pertaining to the LCS project.
“It's the exact same script the previous Minister of Defence (Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein) would say," Syed Saddiq said.
“[Back] then we didn’t accept it, why should we accept it now [under the unity government]?” the Muar MP posed, adding that there must be genuine scrutiny regarding the LCS project’s sixth supplementary contract.
Last week, Deputy Defence Minister Adly Zahari told Dewan Rakyat the increase in the cost of the LCS project to RM11.2 billion — from RM9.13 billion previously — was due to an 83-month extended construction period as well as various specification changes based on the Royal Malaysian Navy’s requirements.
“You cannot just increase [the costs by] RM2 billion, reduce the number of ships from six to five, answer in one minute in Parliament and expect everyone to just accept and tolerate it, it's not right,” Syed Saddiq said on Monday.
Last week, the Muda president's special motion to debate the LCS issue in Dewan Rakyat was rejected by Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul as it was neither a public interest nor a pressing matter.
However, Syed Saddiq reiterated that the issue needs to be debated in Parliament urgently as it concerns national security and funds from the government's coffers.
“Is that my job as an MP, just ask a question and accept an answer without actually debating it meaningfully so that people will know and can hold the government to account when it involves billions of ringgits of taxpayers' money,” he said.
“As a Member of Parliament, I am going to ask why is there a substantial increase, why the decrease [in the number of vessels], who came [up] with the numbers, is there an open tender process, who are the other competitive bidders, why are you awarding the contract to the same group (Boustead) who botched the deal for the past 10 years, how sure are we the same problems will not recur,” he said.
On May 26, Boustead Holding Bhd announced that its 68.85%-owned subsidiary Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) inked a sixth supplemental contract with the government which saw it reduce the number of LCS to five, instead of six, at a higher contract cost of RM11.2 billion versus the original cost of RM9.13 billion.
In the original contract, rewarded to BNS back in 2013, the first of six vessels was slated to be delivered in April 2019, and the other five to be followed in six-month intervals — with the final vessel to be delivered by October 2021.
However, as at end-August 2022, the first ship was only 44% completed, while the others ranged between 0% and 35% completed, despite Putrajaya having already shelled out RM6.1 billion of the initial contract’s RM9.13 billion.
Meanwhile, Boustead’s 65%-owned shipbuilding arm Boustead Holdings Industries Corp Bhd (BHIC) days later said it received a letter from the Minister of Finance Inc on acquiring BHIC’s entire 20.8% stake in BNS.