‘Cabinet to decide on land swap report’

IT is up to the Cabinet to decide whether to make public the report on the RM500mil losses suffered by the Defence Ministry through land swap deals, says Mohamad Sabu.

The Defence Minister said the special committee looking into the land swap deals has submitted its preliminary report to the Cabinet.

“The Cabinet will decide whether the report can be distributed to the MPs and made public,” he said when replying a question by Chan Lih Kang (PH-Tanjong Malim) during Minister’s Question Time in Parliament.

He said the special investigation committee on procurement, governance and finance headed by former Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang prepared the report.

Mohamad added that as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was investigating the questionable land swap, he could not elaborate further on the matter.

The deals involved 1,186ha of Defence Ministry land valued at RM4.75bil with projects worth

RM4.88bil.

To a supplementary question by Ramkarpal Singh (PH-Bukit Gelugor), Mohamad said the government was willing to work with French investigators probing the Scorpene submarines deal.

Ramkarpal wanted to know if assistance would be extended to the French investigators after the murdered Mongolian national Altantuya Shariibu’s case was also mentioned in their probe.