Why no action on LCS scandal for over 2 years, Kit Siang asks MACC

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Similarities between 1MDB scandal and LCS scandal.

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has questioned the MACC’s inaction in the past two years against individuals implicated in the littoral combat ship (LCS) scandal despite evidence presented in the project’s forensic report in 2020.

“I was shocked when I read the LCS forensic audit report, which was prepared by Alliance IFA (M) Sdn Bhd and submitted in July 2020.

NST

“The LCS forensic audit report is indeed a horror story of abuse of power, breach of trust, deception, mismanagement and sheer corruption of billions of ringgit of defence procurements,” he said in a statement today.

Lim said the list of power abuse, corruption, mismanagement and more justified Malaysia’s low ‘D’ category of the high-risk of corruption of countries in Transparency International’s (TI) Government Defence Integrity (GDI) Index as well as the plunging score and rank for Malaysia in TI’s annual Corruption Perception Index.

He said MACC’s inaction and the results of the report raised questions about MACC’s abysmal failure to fight corruption in Malaysia.

Lim said he was still waiting for the MACC to explain why after 10 years, it has failed to prefer a single charge against anyone for the RM9 billion LCS scandal.

“What is the use of having five so-called ‘independent’ committees to monitor the MACC when it could make such a disastrous error as not to charge anyone for the RM9 billion LCS scandal for over a decade?” he asked.

The five committees referred to by Lim are the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board, the Special Committee on Corruption, the Complaints Committee, the Operations Review Panel, and the Corruption Consultation and Prevention Panel.

Lim said he was troubled by the similarities between the 1MDB scandal and the LCS scandal.

“I would commend the forensic audit report as a ‘must read’ for every Malaysian who wants to be updated on current affairs in Malaysia,” he said.

The 104-page forensic audit report, which was completed in July 2020 and declassified on Aug 22, linked Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Abdul Latiff Ahmad and his spouse Zainab Mohd Salleh to a company which is behind a series of suspicious transactions in the LCS project.

The forensic report is the second of two audit reports that the cabinet ordered to be declassified on Aug 10.

On Aug 22, PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli accused Latiff and Zainab of being “big sharks” profiting from the LCS project via offshore companies appointed as project consultants despite being unqualified for the position.

Rafizi said Latiff, now with Bersatu, was at the time an Umno deputy defence minister while Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi led the ministry. – Malaysiakini