LCS PROJECT: PAC TO VISIT LUMUT SITE ON JAN 30

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 23 (Bernama) -- The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) plans to conduct a site visit to Lumut on Jan 30 to assess the progress of the Royal Malaysian Navy’s (RMN) Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) construction project, following earlier proceedings related to the project.

PAC chairman Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin said the visit aims to allow the committee to see the project’s actual progress on the ground and to assess information and reports previously received.

She said the PAC monitors the construction of the vessels from time to time, and that the visit will be the committee’s third to the project site.

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“On paper, the reports we receive may look good, but when we go down to the ground and see for ourselves, that information will be brought into the proceedings, the date of which we will determine later,” she told reporters when commenting on the LCS construction issue in Lumut.

Mas Ermieyati was met after the opening ceremony of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee Conference with State Public Accounts Committees nationwide here today.

Also present were Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul and Malaysian Parliament chief administrator Datuk Dr Ahmad Husaiuni Abdul Rahman.

Mas Ermieyati added that the PAC had previously postponed a follow-up visit due to several technical matters that need to be resolved, in addition to taking into account time constraints and specific project deadlines.

In February 2024, Bernama reported that the PAC had expressed concern over continued delays in the LCS project. As of December 2023, the project was 86 days behind schedule, having achieved only 67.28 per cent progress compared with the revised timeline set by the Defence Ministry (Mindef) of 68.77 per cent.

The PAC’s main concerns also involved the detailed design of the vessels, which has yet to be finalised by Mindef together with French company Naval Group, which is responsible for designing the ships.

In a related development, the project contractor, Boustead Naval Shipyard, was renamed Lumut Naval Shipyard (LUNAS) after being taken over by Ocean Sunshine Bhd, a company owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated, on Aug 18, 2023.

-- BERNAMA