KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 29): The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday expressed concern over the ongoing delay in the building of the littoral combat ships (LCS) belonging to the Royal Malaysian Navy.

Its chairperson Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin said in the presentation of the follow-up action report on the progress of the LCS project, the committee was informed that as of December 2023, the project had been delayed by 86 days, as it reached 67.28% completion compared to the new timeline set by the Ministry of Defence (Mindef), which was 68.77%.

"The PAC's main concern is that the construction of the LCS ships continues to be late. Besides, Mindef has also failed to finalise the detailed design of the ships with the French company that designed the LCS, which is Naval Group," she said at a press conference in the Parliament building on Thursday.

Mas Ermieyati was commenting on the follow-up action report taken by Mindef on the 11 recommendations made by the PAC on the progress of the LCS project for the period of October 2022 to September 2023, which was presented on Thursday.

The PAC chairperson also said the contractor for the project, Boustead Naval Shipyard, was renamed Lumut Naval Shipyard (Lunas), after it was taken over by Ocean Sunshine Bhd owned by Minister of Finance Inc on Aug 18 last year.

"The public can read every PAC follow-up and comment by visiting the PAC website at www.parlimen.gov.my/pac," she said.

In the meantime, Mas Ermieyati said the PAC started proceedings regarding the implementation of the Multi-Lane Fast Flow (MLFF) system under the Ministry of Works and Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) on Monday.

She said a total of three witnesses were called in the proceedings, namely Ministry of Works deputy secretary general (policy and development) Datuk Zahrul Hakim Abdullah, LLM director general Datuk Sazali Harun, and MLLF special task force leader Khairulanuar Muhari.

Mas Ermieyati said the PAC will continue with the MLFF project implementation proceedings by holding three separate proceedings on March 25.

The witnesses to be called are Association of Malaysian Highway Concession Companies president Datuk Zakaria Ahmad Zabidi, Selangor Network Consortium Sdn Bhd director Datuk Seri Azmi Abdul Aziz, SEP Synergy Sdn Bhd group chief executive officer Zaharin Hamzah, and Public Private Partnership Unit (Ukas) director general Datuk Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar.

MLFF is a non-stop toll collection system that uses the automatic registration number recognition system, in addition to the radio frequency identification (RFID) system designed to reduce traffic congestion on tolled highways.

In principle, its implementation was approved in 2021 by the previous government, with an initial allocation of RM3.46 billion, but 32 highway toll concession companies reportedly objected to the project, claiming the government had awarded it directly to a private company, YTL Corp Bhd, without consulting the concession companies that will finance its implementation.

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