Panel reported 39 corruption, abuse of power cases under defence ministry, says Mat Sabu

SHAH ALAM - Former defence minister Mohamad Sabu has revealed 39 investigations linked to corruption, abuse of power or waste of national finances were reported by the governance, procurement and finance investigation committee (JKSTUPKK) when he was heading the ministry.

Mohamad commonly known as Mat Sabu said 26 cases were linked to the defence ministry and investigations were also carried out on nine ministries involving RM47 billion.

"According to JKSTUPKK, among the significant weaknesses were poor planning, lack of due diligence, weakness in contract clauses," he said in a statement.

Mat Sabu, the Amanah president added other weaknesses were failure to follow guidelines, lack of transparency in the procurement process and poor monitoring and intervention by committee members of the administration in the procurement process.

"The LCS case is one of the most unacceptable cases," he said in a post on Facebook today.

Mat Sabu added he had declassified 16 JKSTUPKK investigation reports on the 'land swap' between May and December 2018 involving nearly 3,000 acres under defense ministry worth RM4.8 billion.

On the controversial littoral combat ships (LCS) project, he urged Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to declassify the documents.

On Wednesday Ismail Sabri said the Attorney-General should prosecute and bring those responsible to justice if the evidence were strong,

Mat Sabu, the Kota Raja MP also asked the Cabinet to declassify the Forensic Auditing Report of the LCS Project conducted in 2019.

Commenting further, Mat Sabu said JKSTUPKK was set up under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration. "In the first Cabinet meeting I attended after being appointed as a minister, I proposed to create the JKSTUPKK headed by the former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang."

The committee was set up to probe and identify malpractice, abuse of power or waste of national finances, he said.