Malaysia asks anti-graft body to expedite probe into LCS project

MALAYSIAN Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the Cabinet has asked the nation’s anti-graft commission to speed up its investigation into the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) project.

“If there is strong evidence, the state will prosecute and those responsible will be brought to justice,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. The Cabinet also agreed to declassify the 2019 forensic report on the project after securing advice from the attorney-general and auditor general, Ismail said.

The LCS project has been debated in the upper house of Parliament after a report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last week revealed that not a single ship had been completed although the government had spent RM6 billion (S$1.85 billion) on the project. Boustead Naval Shipyard was awarded the RM9.1 billion contract in 2011 to build six LCS.

The investigation won’t interfere with the Cabinet’s decision in April to proceed with the LCS project, Ismail said.

“The government is committed to continue with this project” in the interest of the nation’s navy and armed forces, he said. BLOOMBERG