SHAH ALAM - PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli continues with his series of revelations over the Royal Malaysian Navy's (RMN) littoral combat ship (LCS) project claiming that there was initially a plan to conceal the involvement of Naval Group (formerly known as DCNS) in the scandal.
Rafizi said the government should have directly appointed DCNS if it was true that the company was the main supplier of expertise, design and construction of LSC ships like it was done in the Scorpene submarine project.
"Instead, for the LCS project, the Malaysian government had appointed Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) as the main contractor which later appointed other companies as subcontractors.
"Although the decision was said to be an effort to help the military veterans (because BNS was owned by Boustead which was owned by the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT) and develop local expertise, appointing two more layers of subcontractors before reaching the final supplier, which is DCNS, implies that there is an element of corruption from the beginning.
"After being appointed as contractor through a letter of appointment (LOA) dated Dec 16, 2011, BNS began appointing subcontractors for the main packages of LCS’s supply and construction," he said in a post on his website www.rafiziramli.com on Tuesday.
Rafizi said on April 9, 2012, BNS had issued two LOAs for two main packages to appoint subcontractors involving a total of RM1.185 billion, both of which were given to Contraves Advanced Devices Sdn Bhd (CAD).
He revealed that on the same day, BNS appointed CAD as a subcontractor for the two packages and also allowed CAD to appoint its associate company Contraves Electrodynamics Sdn Bhd (CED) as a subcontractor.
"BNS’ decision allowing CAD to appoint CED as a subcontractor was made on the same day the LOA letter to CAD was issued, which was on April 9, 2012.
"CED then issued an LOA to DCNS to supply works for the two packages amounting to RM1.185 billion to be paid by the Malaysian government.
"Unfortunately, the investigation showed that for the two packages which were finalised at a price of RM1.185 billion with the Malaysian government, the LOA from CED (second layer subcontractor) to DCNS decided to put the cost of only RM397 million.
"That means, for the works that will be invoiced by DCNS to CED amounting to RM397 million, the claim from subcontractors CED and CAD to the Malaysian government (through BNS) is three times more expensive," he said.
In the meantime, Rafizi also quipped at former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s attempt to divert the attention on the issue which he considered very weak.
He said Najib has always gave the impression that this was due to bureaucratic weakness as a result of Pakatan Harapan's (PH) decision to investigate the project, apart from trying to deceive his followers by saying that there was no element of corruption in the scandal.
"Even a child can conclude that there are ’invisible hands’ behind the BNS, CAD and CED companies that arranged supplier contracts and took commission of 200 per cent from the cost charged by DCNS.
"The people want to know who are the ‘sharks’ that had robbed the people's money and weakened the national defence in such a way.
"The main question is, who is the head that has the authority to instruct and protect certain officers in BNS in committing robbery in broad daylight like this? I am waiting for Najib’s comment," he said.