LCS project: Mat Sabu, Liew Chin Tong deny Najib's claims

SHAH ALAM - The former minister and deputy minister of defence of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government have denied a statement made by Datuk Seri Najib Razak that the littoral combat ship (LCS) project was abandoned because PH postponed it in September 2019.

In a joint statement, former defence minister Mohamad Sabu and former deputy defence minister Liew Chin Tong said Najib's statement that the LCS project could only resume in April 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic was untrue.

He said many people were influenced by the former prime minister's narrative when the statements were completely false and was intended to mislead the people.

"The timeline proves that the PH government was not the cause of the delay of the LCS project. The status of the progress of the project should have reached 49.12 per cent in January 2016, but only 39.67 percent was completed.

"In January 2017, the progress of the project was supposed to be 59.35 per cent but only 46.99 per cent was completed while it was expected to be 70.58 per cent completed in January 2018 but only 50.15 per cent was completed.

"In January 2020, the project was supposed to be 82.41 per cent completed but only 56.39 per cent was completed with a variance of -26.02 per cent. As of today, the detailed design has not been completed," according to the statement on Tuesday.

The development of the LCS, they said involved the concept design phase, followed by the basic design and lastly, the detailed design.

Based on the agreement between the Naval Group from France and the contractor, Boustead Naval Group (BNS), the detailed design must be approved by the Naval Group as the party responsible for the design before the construction of the ship.

“The design concept phase started on June 4, 2012, and was supposed to be finalised on Jan 28, 2013. However, it was only finalised on Sept 24, 2013 (a delay of 238 days or eight months).

“The basic design started on Oct 3, 2013, and was supposed to be finalised on Jan 31, 2015, but was only fully completed on Jan 20, 2016 (a delay of 17 months and 20 days).

"According to the original contract, the detailed design phase was supposed to be carried out from Aug 6, 2014 to Nov 29, 2016. However, this phase continued until today and is still not finished," they explained in the statement.

Both Mohamad and Liew said for quality control purposes, the LCS design produced by BNS was subjected to the approval of the Naval Group as the party responsible for the design.

It was followed by inspection and verification by Bureau Veritas, an independent international body to ensure that the ship's design met the requirements, as stipulated in the contract.

"The PH government made a decision on the direction of this project in February 2020 based on the recommendations of the Special Investigation Committee on Public Governance, Procurement and Finance (JKSTUPKK), but the downfall of the government happened in the same month..

"Dr Mahathir also decided that those who committed wrongdoings must be brought to justice and the BNS management team reshuffled while the LCS project is considered a sick project and will receive an injection of funds to compensate for the embezzled funds.

"The Defence Ministry was instructed to present the Minister's Cabinet paper in the near future. Unfortunately, what was planned did not happen due to the Sheraton move that brought down the PH government," according to the statement.