KUALA LUMPUR: Experts believe that while the government's decision to proceed with the controversial Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) project is necessary to safeguard the country's sovereignty and security, a shift in focus is needed.
Defence and geostrategic analyst Muhammad Fuad Mat Noor said attention should be paid to the construction of the vessel, which is already more than 40 per cent complete.
He believed that the construction of the remaining four vessels, which is still in the early stages, should be suspended to prevent the government from incurring even more losses.
"In my view, any vessel that is already at an advanced stage (of construction) should proceed, and those in the initial stages should stop for now.
"The government has spent more than RM6 billion on the project, but has yet to take delivery of a single vessel. It would take a long time to start work on a new one,' he told the New Straits Times Press.
Following two years of investigations and nine proceedings, the Public Accounts Committee recently announced its report on the woes affecting the LCS project. It found that the government, as part of the direct negotiation project, had paid RM6.083 to Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) for the five LCS, but had yet to take delivery of any.
The government, it said, also had to make an advanced payment of RM1.36 billion to BNS.
Fuad said the Defence Ministry's priority now was to identify those responsible for the mismanagement and how the funds were spent.
"The government also has to study the management and acquisition process because this is the second such delay after the incident involving the Second-Generation Patrol Vessel.
"Lightning has struck twice. We don't want to point fingers at anyone, but we need those responsible to take note of the issue."
Ahmad Ghazali Abu Hassan, who is the former director of Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia's defence and international security centre of studies, urged the government to suspend the LCS acquisition until the investigation was wrapped up.
He said the integrity and transparency issues in the acquisition process had to be addressed before the LCS project could resume.
"Yes, defence assets are important. But over the last 10 years, when we had yet to receive any of the LCS, our current assets were sufficient to safeguard national security.
"It's not that we do not want new assets. We do. It's just that the economy has yet to recover."
He said the government also had to conduct an in-depth study to ensure that the acquisition was transparent and did not burden the country.
"Continuing this project would not be right. At present, we have to make do with the assets we have.
"If we proceed with the project, there is no way of guaranteeing that its equipment, even its weapons, is state-of-the-art. We may even end up with outdated equipment given that it has been 10 years since the project began."