Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Seeks More Witnesses In Littoral Combat Ship Investigation
The head of Malaysia’s Anti-Corruption Commission has stated that the agency will be calling in more individuals to testify as part of its ongoing investigation into the Royal Malaysian Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship program.
During a press conference on March 16 held after the completion of a basic training course for MACC officers, Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki said that the case investigating officer had told him that many more witnesses in Malaysia and outside of Malaysia would be summoned to testify. He added that nobody would be “rejected” from testifying, regardless of whether they were VIPs or government ministers.
The Chief Commissioner’s comments followed comments by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on March 14 that he had ordered the MACC investigation into the program to continue. In response to a question in Parliament, Anwar said that he had ordered further investigations in order to uncover and prosecute the “real culprits” behind the program’s corruption woes.
In February, Malaysian Defense Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said that the cabinet would decide on whether to continue with the previous government’s decision to reduce the number of Littoral Combat Ships ordered to five, rather than the six originally planned. The defense minister said that it was “necessary” for the program as a whole to continue, noting that the reduced order had not changed the RM 9.13 billion (approximately $2 billion) ceiling cost of the program. A 2019 letter from shipbuilders Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation obtained by a 2022 Parliamentary Accounts Committee investigation of the program provided an estimate of an additional 2 billion ringgit (approximately $450 million) to build and deliver all six ships as originally planned, bringing the total cost of all six Littoral Combat Ships to approximately RM 11 billion (approximately $2.45 billion) should the sixth ship be reinstated.
The Littoral Combat Ship program has suffered from massive delays in addition to allegations of corruption, with no ships delivered to the Royal Malaysian Navy despite original plans for five ships to be delivered by 2023. Lead ship KD Maharaja Lela is now expected to be completed in 2024, with commissioning planned for 2026 pending the completion of harbor and sea trials.