Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Saturday, 1st
November 2008:
PAC should summon Najib to its Eurocopter
hearing and not just call up civil servants as he is the Defence
Minister at the time of the critical decision-making before the
ministerial swap with Abdullah on Sept. 17 and who must bear final
responsibility
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) should
summon Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to its Eurocopter
hearing and not just call up civil servants as he is the Defence
Minister at the time of the critical decision-making before the
ministerial swap with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on
Sept. 17 and who must bear final responsibility to Parliament for the
Eurocopter deal.
The PAC postponed its second-day inquiry into the Eurcopter deal on
Thursday because the Finance Ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Dr. Wan
Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah did not turn up to testify.
The PAC is right in demanding that the highest-ranking officer from the
Finance Ministry should appear before it to testify, and Wan Abdul Aziz
is setting a bad example of civil service leadership and guilty of
parliamentary contempt in claiming that he was “busy with other duties”!
What is the nature of Wan Abdul Aziz’s “busy with other duties” that he
is prepared to commit parliamentary contempt by not appearing before the
PAC when summoned?
However, why is the PAC not summoning Najib to testify and justify the
extraordinary billion-ringgit 12 Cougar EC725 Eurocopters procurement –
as in other “first-world Commonwealth Parliaments”, the appearance of
the Minister concerned would have been the first item of such PAC
inquiry?!
Is this another illustration why having a former Cabinet Minister to
chair the PAC is most unsuitable, for it would be completely unthinkable
for a political junior who had been used to taking orders from the
Deputy Prime Minister for the past five years (and with Najib poised to
become Primer Minister in another five months) to summon his superior to
appear before the PAC to give an account of his stewardship of the
Defence Ministry over the controversial Eurocopter procurement!
If the PAC had been headed by a senior Opposition parliamentarian, there
would be no such qualms and self-denying limitations, and Najib would be
put to the test as to whether he fully believes in the concept of
parliamentary democracy in responding positively to any PAC call to
testify before it.
The PAC Chairman Datuk Azmi Khalid should not be browbeaten or
influenced by both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister who had
clearly hinted that the PAC should not create waves in its inquiry, as
Abdullah has dismissed the three sets of different pricing for the
Eurocopter deal given by the government as “academic” while Najib has
sought to ridicule the Opposition for “making a meal” of the Eurocopter
procurement.
The PAC inquiry into the Eurocopter deal is neither “academic” nor
“making a meal” for two important reasons:
1. The Eurocopter deal raises very grave
issues about propriety, accountability and professionalism in the
decision-making process, whether at the technical, off-set or price
stages, especially when it is now established that the government
had not conducted physical and specification inspections of the
three short-listed aircrafts – the Cougar EC725, Sikorsky S92 and
AgustaWestlands AW101.
Najib should appear before the PAC fully armed to justify the
procurement of the Eurocopters without any physical evaluation and
test flights, citing previous instances in Defence Ministry of such
exemptions or even cases of other governments buying billion-ringgit
aircrafts without any test-flight.
Otherwise, how is Najib to rebut serious charges that the Defence
Ministry had acted in a most irresponsible manner in the procurement
process in trifling with the lives and safety of RMAF personnel who
would have to use the new helicopters?
2. As Abdullah said that the price would be renegotiated again when
the government finally decides to purchase the helicopters, the
implication is very clear: the choice is still the Eurocopters! This
makes all the preceding transactions in the helicopter tender, in
particular on technical, offset and price, all very relevant, as
well as warranting a full explanation from Najib as to why the
government is “locked in” to the Eurocopter offer in future instead
of calling a completely new international tender open to all
interested aircraft manufacturers.
*
Lim
Kit Siang, DAP
Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor
http://dapmalaysia.org