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Why did Najib ignore navy chief’s complaints, says PKR man

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PKR information chief Fahmi Fadzil says Najib Razak should not blame PH when he did not listen to the navy’s warnings on the LCS project.

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Free Malaysia Today
The first Maharajalela-class littoral combat ship which was launched by Boustead Naval Shipyard in 2017. (BHIC pic)

PETALING JAYA:
Former prime minister Najib Razak has come under fire for blaming Pakatan Harapan for delaying a RM9 billion warship project although complaints by a former navy chief about the project were not heeded.

PKR information chief Fahmi Fadzil asked why Najib did not take up the concerns expressed by then navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar about the littoral combat ship project.

The project entails the construction of six corvette-class ships for the Royal Malaysian Navy, with the first ship due for delivery this month.

The Public Accounts Committee, parliament’s watchdog, has said that not a single ship had been delivered despite the government spending RM6 billion on the project since 2011.

“Is that Pakatan (PH)’s fault?” said Fahmi on Facebook, hours after Najib had said that PH had frozen the project after taking power in 2018, and work being suspended because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Najib said the project was only resumed by the current government in April.

However, Fahmi questioned why there had been no action on letters written by Aziz. “Didn’t he (Najib) ever think that if action was taken on the 10 letters by the navy commander … Maybe RM6 billion might not have been wasted. Maybe the navy would have already got the much-needed littoral combat ships.”

A report by the PAC on Thursday said the defence ministry and contractor Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd had ignored the navy’s views on the project.

The PAC report said Aziz had testified that he wrote two letters to Najib, five letters to the defence minister, 10 to the ministry’s secretary-general, and one each to the secretary-general of the Treasury, and chief secretary to the government.

Najib said earlier the project had been investigated by a government committee in 2018, when PH was in power, and by the police after BNS lodged a police report in December 2020.

He also said that Aziz wanted ships which used older technology while BNS had proposed a more up-to-date design.

The PAC report said the navy had initially chosen the Dutch-designed Sigma-class, but BNS had proposed the French-designed Gowind class in 2011 to then defence minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, which was chosen instead.

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