Parliamentary special select committee should monitor ministries

SHAH ALAM - The audit report that found the Defence Ministry’s (Mindef) governance in the supply contract of the littoral combat ships (LCS) project was weak, was a lesson that every ministry should be monitored by a permanent parliamentary special select committee (PSSC).

Political expert from Jeffrey Sachs Centre on Sustainable Development (JSC) Sunway University Professor Dr Wong Chin Huat said the LCS scandal could be exposed after an investigation by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), but the PAC was unable to investigate every scandal with its limited energy and resources.

"To maximise the chances of a scandal being exposed like this, each ministry must be monitored by a permanent PSSC.

"When the LCS project issue happened, the Parliament did not have a PSSC that monitored Mindef and it became one of the factors of betrayal," he told Sinar Harian on Thursday.

He was commenting on Mindef's governance’s weakness based on the Investigating Committee on Procurement, Governance and Finance (JKSTUPKK) audit report which was disclosed on Wednesday after it was declassified and published on the PAC portal.

JSTUPKK in its report also revealed that there were also weaknesses in the Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) management and that the company suffered critical financial constraints.

Wong pointed out that the unfortunate episode also showed that the government must be brave to expose the corruption and betrayal in order to eliminate it.

"Fortunately the government did not deny about the LCS like the case was with 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB)," he said.

He said said reforms in the Attorney General's Chambers must also be carried out to be free from political control.