Former navy chief says complaints about ship contract went unheeded

PETALING JAYA • When Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar was about to retire in 2015 after serving for 40 years, he was offered the plum job of executive deputy chairman/managing director of Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation (BHIC).

He said no to the offer, which would have included remuneration of more than RM80,000 (S$24,700) a month and other perks.

"I refused," he said of being asked to take over from Tan Sri Ahmad Ramli Mohd Nor, then BHIC executive deputy chairman. "I refused and I said no."

He told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC): "I did not want to go and eat my (earlier words)."

The PAC, which reports to Parliament, is a bipartisan parliamentary committee.

According to the testimony by Tan Sri Abdul Aziz, 66, he decided not to join BHIC because its unit, Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS), carried out actions that were allegedly against the interest of the navy.

Mr Ahmad Ramli, a former navy chief, is one of two people implicated and mentioned repeatedly in the PAC report on the RM9 billion littoral combat ship (LCS) scandal.

The other is former navy captain Anuar Murad, whose name was mentioned 23 times in the PAC report. He was BNS' LCS programme director.

Sources with knowledge of the case that is being investigated by the authorities said yesterday that a former high-ranking official of BNS will be charged today with criminal breach of trust in connection with the scandal.

Sources said the person will be taken to the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court at about 9am to face the charges.

"Yes, we are charging a certain individual tomorrow (Tuesday)," a source told The Star yesterday.

The scandal came to light on Aug 4 when the PAC reported that the Malaysian government had paid RM6 billion of the RM9 billion contract to build the six ships, but none of them had been delivered.

The ships were commissioned in 2011, without open tender. They were to be built by BNS with the first delivered in 2019 and the sixth delivered next year.

In the 247-page PAC report, Admiral (Retired) Abdul Aziz said he had written 10 letters, including to then Prime Minister Najib Razak and then Defence Minister Zahid Hamidi, as well as to the chief secretary to the government and the secretaries-general of the Defence Ministry and the Treasury.

None of them, he said, bothered about his incessant protests about the warships, which were to be used to patrol Malaysia's shoreline.

Adm (Ret) Abdul Aziz's main grievance concerned the navy's objection to the design of the ships as he felt that the navy, as the end user, should have a say.

But his views were ignored by the contractor, BHIC.

The core of the dispute is that the Malaysian navy had wanted the Sigma design of the LCS by a Dutch company and the combat management system (CMS) from a French company.

But after intense lobbying, BNS opted for the Gowind design and the Setis CMS - both from France.

Adm (Ret) Abdul Aziz said he felt "very dejected" as it was claimed then that Zahid had agreed to the Gowind-Setis combination. Zahid was said to have earlier agreed to the Sigma design.

"The French design was not a proven design while Sigma was already operational in Indonesia, Morocco and a few other countries," Adm (Ret) Abdul Aziz said, adding that there was also a lost opportunity as the builder had wanted to make Malaysia its hub.

The Gowind design is by France's Naval Group, formerly DCNS, which had also built the controversial Scorpene submarines in 2002 for Malaysia.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK