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(*thanks to reader ‘Xylogue’ for the term)

Fresh from whitewashing the RM4.6 bil Port Klang Free Zone scandal (previous post HERE), the energetic Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has moved on to its next job: removing the stubborn stains left by the RM 6.75 bil Navy OPV (offshore patrol boat) procurement scandal.

Again, after making a good show of ‘investigating’, PAC Chair Shahrir ‘Peroxide’ Abdul Samad has announced that a number of crucial financial records pertaining to the procurement of several offshore patrol vessels (OPV’s) for the Royal Malaysian Navy are not available because the records ‘have been destroyed’. No files = no case? ‘Case closed’ then, I presume?

How… convenient.

Procurement documents have been ‘destroyed’? No problem, Shahrir, follow the money — there is always a paper trail somewhere. Bank statements — records of transactions, accounts of the principals and wives/mistresses, unusual company/ministry expenditures; while you’re at it, go squeeze PSC Naval Dockyards’ (now Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd) Amin Shah Omar Shah’s balls till he squeals.

See Shahrir, your job really isn’t that hard. Unless, of course… you’ve been instructed not to find anything after all the sandiwara, which I rather suspect is the case.

Problem is, we ain’t buying it.

(Antares first alerted me to the defence procurements scandal embroiling DPM Najib Tun Razak – just before it broke in the media several days ago – but have been unable to post about it until now due to breaking events, particularly the violent crackdown in Burma.)

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Article on the OPV procurement scandal, and DAP’s pointed remarks to the PAC. Extracted from Malaysiakini, below: (highlights added by me)

Navy deal: Who destroyed the records?

Beh Lih Yi Sep 29, 07 11:09am

The Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) has been told to investigate a “shocking revelation” that certain records into the RM6.75 billion navy deal to purchase six offshore patrol vessels have been destroyed. The call was made in a report by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng to the Federal Territory ACA office in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. “There is greater urgency in discovering the truth of this scandal following the shocking revelation by Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chair Shahrir Abdul Samad in a Malaysiakini report on Sept 26,” Lim said in his report. In a three-part interview with Shahrir published since Tuesday, the Umno politician disclosed that the powerful parliamentary committee has not been able to get hold of sufficient company records pertaining to the deal. He claimed they have been “destroyed”. He said the records destroyed involved the first two problem-ridden vessels, delivered to the Royal Malaysian Navy last year after a two-year delay. The remaining four are under construction. The PAC started to investigate the scandal in 2005. The deal also came under criticisms in the latest Auditor-General’s report for approving an additional RM1.4 billion to complete the four vessels with “no justification”. The lucrative contract was awarded to PSC-Naval Dockyard Sdn Bhd – a subsidiary of PSC Industries Bhd owned by Umno associate Amin Shah Omar Shah – in 1998. The company was renamed Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd in August last year. Six areas to focus In his report, Lim told the ACA to focus on six prime investigative areas in the scandal: 1 Why were there no open tender and instead the contract was awarded direct to PSC-Naval Dockyard in 1998? 2 What is the justification for increasing the contract value by 38 percent to RM6.75 billion when the contractor had already failed to perform? 3 Why did the government waive claims of at least RM214 million in late penalties for the late delivery of the first two vessels and the non-delivery of the remaining four? 4 Why no action was taken against the contract for sub-standard work on the first two vessels delivered last year which failed to fulfill technical specifications – with 483 incomplete works and items and 298 complaints over the operations of the vessels – risking the lives and safety of our sailors? 5 Why did the Defence Ministry pay in advance RM4.26 billion to the contractor even though progress of work done only amounts to RM2.87 billion? 6 Who ordered the destruction of the documents as announced by Shahrir? “It would be unfortunate if those who expose corruption are persecuted and punished whereas those who commit such wrongdoings can prosper and flourish,” added Lim in the report. On Sept 12, Lim submitted a memorandum to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is also defence minister, calling for investigation into the scandal but the opposition party leader has yet to receive any response.

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Excerpts from an Asia Sentinel article on the scandal: (highlights added by me)

“… Then, over the last few weeks, a third military scandal surfaced. Malaysia’s Auditor General, in a report tabled in Parliament on September 7, alleged that a contract to build naval vessels given to PSC-Naval Dockyard, a subsidiary of Penang Shipbuilding & Construction Sdn Bhd, which is owned by another UMNO crony, Amin Shah Omar Shah, is near failure.

PSC-Naval Dockyard was contracted to deliver six patrol boats for the Malaysian Navy in 2004 and complete the delivery by last April. Those were supposed to be the first of 27 offshore vessels ultimately to cost RM24 billion plus the right to maintain and repair all of the country’s naval craft. But only two of the barely operational patrol boats had been delivered by mid 2006. There were 298 recorded complaints about the two boats, which were also found to have 100 and 383 uncompleted items aboard them respectively.

The original RM5.35 billion contract ballooned to RM6.75 billion by January 2007. The auditor also reported that the ministry had paid out Rm4.26 billion to PSC up to December 2006 although only Rm2.87 billion of work had been done, an overpayment of Rm1.39 billion, or 48 percent. In addition, Malaysia’s cabinet waived late penalties of Rm214 million. Between December 1999, according to the Auditor General, 14 “progress payments” amounting to Rm943 million despite the fact that the auditor general could find no payment vouchers or relevant documents dealing with the payments…”

Full article is HERE.

Military procurement contracts come under the direct purview of DPM Najib Tun Razak, who has held the Defence Ministry portfolio since 1999.

Now seems to be a good time to revive public interest in the horrible (and professional) murder of Mongolian model and translator Altantuya Shariibuu (remember her?) by members of Malaysia’s elite VIP-protection police bodyguard unit (the UTK – Unit Tindakan Khas, or ‘Special Action Unit’); it was on one of these defence procurement trips in Europe that Najib became acquainted with Altantuya Shariibuu through his close friend and associate Abdul Razak Baginda.

Asia Sentinel’s detailed exposé on Najib’s involvement with Abdul Razak Baginda and Altantuya Shariibuu is HERE. As the article’s title says: “What did Najib know and when did he know it?”

Old sins live forever in the vast infinity of the ‘Net.

More soon.

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