Questionable purchase of military assets under probe

PUTRAJAYA: The Defence Ministry may report some of the questionable purchase of military assets to the anti-graft authority once they get hold of the report on the matter.

The purchases are among cases being investigated by the Governance, Procurement and Finance Investigating Committee headed by former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang.

This is aside from the 16 cases of dubious land deal swaps of which two – the building of army camps in Paloh in Johor and Hutan Melintang in Perak – had been reported to the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) last week.

Defence Minister’s Special Duties Officer Rafizal Ali said the ministry has yet to receive the report on questionable purchases from the committee.

“Once we have it, we will see if there is a need to report it to the MACC,” he said.

Yesterday, Rafizal lodged a report with the MACC on the payment of RM555mil made by the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT) for the Automated Enforcement System (AES) following the findings by the committee.

He said the findings concluded that the AES project only benefitted the concession companies while putting the government at financial risk.

LTAT is said to have paid the two concessionaires – ATES Sdn Bhd and Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd – sometime in February 2015.

“The investigation also revealed that there were concerns over plans for LTAT to take over the AES project which was discussed but was not minuted.

“The committee also found elements of interference by the previous administration, including the former prime minister and certain Cabinet ministers,” he said after lodging the report.

Rafizal said the committee had raised concerns on the amount LTAT had to pay for the system as the original cost was RM40mil.

“An audit firm had valued it at RM250mil, hence making the RM555mil payment unreasonable and way above market price.

“We are concerned that LTAT would not be able to recover the depositors’ money that was used to pay for the AES and hope the MACC will investigate the matter and get the actual reason why the board had to pay so much for this,” said Rafizal.

LTAT former chairman Admiral (Rtd) Tan Sri Anwar Mohd Nor was quoted as saying that the government should repay the board all the money it forked out to take over the AES and the amount should include the 12% return and other AESrelated expenses to date as per the agreement with the previous government.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the government would repay only the RM555mil to the board, saying that the AES investment was a bad decision by LTAT.