KUALA LUMPUR: The investigation by the Governance, Procurement and Finance Investigating Committee (GPFIC) on the Ministry of Defence (MOD) will be continued with the focus shifted to the maintenance and purchase of military assets.
GPFIC chairman Tan Sri Ambrin Buang said this was following the completion of the first investigation on MOD over the land swap projects with a briefing of the final report of the investigation on the project tabled by Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu in Dewan Negara, today.
“Today we have just finished with the land swap issue, we are moving to other areas like asset purchase, maintenance and others, we will keep the ministry informed on those,“ he told a media conference which was also joined by Mohamad in the Parliament lobby here today, as soon as the briefing on the final report was completed.
Ambrin said the investigation was conducted to ensure the implementation of government projects could be done in an orderly manner in line with the policy of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government to boost its transparency.
Mohamad, when briefing on the final report, drew the attention of the members of Dewan Negara that the losses or leakages of government revenue, through the land swap projects involving 2,923 acres of land belonging to the ministry, were in excess of RM500 million.
According to Ambrin, among the causes of the losses which were identified by GPFIC, included the method of determining the values of replacement lands which were inconsistent, with four land replacements which were found to be evaluated less than the evaluations of the Valuation and Property Service Department, causing a loss of RM166.81 million.
In addition, he said the committee found the planning for the land swap projects were weak, whereby, based on reviews, only two of the 16 development projects, namely, PUSPAHANAS and TUDM 323 Squadron Facilities, Bukit Banang, Johor which were identified to be contained in the Ministry of Defence Development Plan.
“Meanwhile, 10 of the 16 project were initiated after receiving unsolicited proposals from the private sector whereby the private sector identified the replacement land and subsequently proposed the development projects to be considered by the Ministry of Defence,“ he said.
The committee also found several projects which were implemented without taking into account the views and comments of central agencies such as the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Finance Ministry which indirectly negatively impacted the implementation of the land swap projects.
In this matter, Mohamad said MOD had submitted applications to re-evaluate all replacement lands which were involved in privatisation projects to enable any further negotiations and the establishing of the values of replacement lands would profit the government.
“At the same time, the ministry is also involved with several series of discussions with the Public-Private Cooperation Unit to determine the latest direction in the implementation of the land swap projects in line with the suggestions for improvements from the investigation committee,“ he said.
Meanwhile, when asked about the aspiration of PH which had ruled for a year as of yesterday, Mohamad said, in entering the second year of its rule, he aspired to go down to the field more often to explain the government policies and the mission of the PH coalition.
He said he had learned a lot in the first year as Minister of Defence and there were still a lot more to learn and improved to make successful the aspiration of a New Malaysia. — Bernama
