Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s announcement that the cabinet intends to declassify the report of a forensic audit on the government’s procurement of six Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) for the navy to be declassified will only be meaningful if there is full disclosure without any redaction. The forensic report on LCS prepared in 2019 by the Committee on Procurement, Governance, and Finance that was formed by the PH government and chaired by former Auditor-General Ambrin Buang.
Ismail’s guarantee of a transparent investigation and action against those responsible is however tainted by the inertia and inaction of both the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission(MACC) and the Attorney-General. Ismail said he had summoned Attorney-General Idrus Harun and MACC chief Azam Baki and ordered them to take immediate action as per the cabinet’s decision.
That Azam Baki and Idrus Harun had to be summoned by the Prime Minister and ordered to speed up its investigation and drag all those responsible to court respectively is tantamount to an open admission that both Azam and Idrus has miserably failed their statutory duty to act independently and professionally without fear or favour.
To fail to act on public complaints and from the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee until requiring a special directive from the Prime Minister to do so shows that both men are unfit for their positions as MACC Chief Commissioner and Attorney-General. This further highlights the importance for both posts to be independent from the Prime Minister’s control to avoid being misused as a political weapon.
The abject failure of both agencies to defend national interests and uphold the sanctity of the law to punish those involved in the misappropriation of funds in the RM9 billion LCS scandal cannot be justified. Malaysians continue to be outraged that RM6 billion has been paid but not one single ship has been delivered even though the delivery time has long passed.
And yet, both MACC and Attorney-General appears indifferent and appears ready to act only when directed and not when a wrong is committed. DAP reiterates that both Azam and Idrus must resign as being unfit for their important posts so that their replacement can conduct and act against those responsible.