Politician links minister, 'wife' to Malaysian warship scandal

KUALA LUMPUR • Malaysian opposition leader Rafizi Ramli yesterday provided documents and screenshots of social media posts to reaffirm his claim that the second wife of a federal minister was linked to firms that allegedly siphoned millions of ringgit from a controversial warship project.

Writing on his blog, the Parti Keadilan Rakyat deputy president said there was "enough evidence" to back his claim that the woman, Ms Zainab Mohd Salleh, was Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Special Functions) Abdul Latiff Ahmad's second wife.

Datuk Latiff, who was formerly a deputy defence minister, had on Monday said the woman was not his wife.

Mr Rafizi yesterday said Mr Latiff and a Thierry Barrier had set up a company called Mega P Asia Sdn Bhd in 2015 to supply labour for submarine projects in the country. But he said documents showed Ms Zainab and Mr Latiff were majority shareholders of the company.

He said this was also supported by the company's 2016 financial report which named Ms Zainab as the controlling shareholder. She was also the controlling shareholder of Alizes Marine Limited.

"This evidence is sufficient to confirm that Zainab is Latiff's wife and they were involved in Marine Alizes Limited which was named in the forensic report as a company that embezzled up to RM210 million (S$65 million) from the project," he said, in reference to a declassified report by the bipartisan Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a body that reports to the Malaysian Parliament.

"If Zainab is not his wife, why would Latiff give majority shares to her that enabled her to control Mega P Asia?" Mr Rafizi wrote. He said Mr Latiff's denial that Ms Zainab was not his second wife was a bid to mislead the public.

Mr Rafizi also said the PAC report had named Ms Zainab as Mr Latiff's wife. Ms Zainab also has digital footprints that linked her to Mr Latiff, as she was among those who congratulated him online when he was sworn in as a minister in Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob's Cabinet.

The claims and counter-claim were in connection to the RM9 billion littoral combat ship (LCS) project of the Royal Malaysian Navy.

The navy in 2011 commissioned the construction of six small warships from local ship builder Boustead Naval Shipyard, without an open tender.

Delivery of the vessels, to be used to patrol Malaysia's shoreline, was to have started from 2019. Five of the ships should have been delivered by this month, with the sixth scheduled for delivery next year. But not a single ship is ready today.

The PAC said on Aug 4 that the first LCS was only about 44 per cent complete.

The committee also said that RM1.4 billion of government funds had been used by the contractor for other purposes. In total, RM6 billion of the RM9 billion contract had been paid out, raising public anger.