PAC calls on PM's Dept to declassify report on Defence Ministry's land swap deals

• PAC chairman Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin told a press conference in Parliament on Thursday (June 15) that she had written a letter to Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, the minister in the Prime Minister's Department for legal and institutional reform, seeking for the report to be declassified.

KUALA LUMPUR (June 15): The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is calling on the government to declassify a report on Ministry of Defence (pictured) land swap deals that was prepared by the Special Investigation Committee on Public Governance, Procurement and Finance, so that they can be reviewed.

PAC chairman Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin told a press conference in Parliament on Thursday (June 15) that she had written a letter to Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, the minister in the Prime Minister's Department for legal and institutional reform, seeking for the report to be declassified.

She said the now disbanded special investigation committee had presented three reports to the 14th parliamentary PAC, one dated Nov 16 that year involving the automated enforcement system or AES, while the second, which was dated Dec 1, involved the procurement of the six littoral combat ships (LCS).

The AES report was declassified on July 8, 2022, while the procurement report on the six LCS were declassified on Aug 17, 2022, said Mas Ermieyati.

However, the special investigation committee's report on the land swap deals under the Ministry of Defence — one part dated April 2, 2019 and another dated Nov 16, 2020 — remains classified.

The special investigation committee, which was led by former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang, started an investigation in 2018 on 16 land-swap projects involving a total of 2,923 acres of land owned by the Ministry of Defense.

As a result of the investigation, the committee said in 2019 that it had found an estimated loss or leakage of government revenue of over RM500 million caused by land valuations that were lower than market value, and poor contract management.

The special investigation committee also said excessive interference for political interests had contributed to the weakness of the governance of the implementation of the land swap projects in the Ministry of Defence.

Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu (Mat Sabu), former Defence Minister and current Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, previously disclosed that 13 of the 16 land swap deals that were carried out during Barisan Nasional’s administration involved his “predecessor, as well as the previous prime minister”.

In response, former defence minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein challenged Mat Sabu and his then deputy, who is the current Deputy Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Liew Chin Tong, to prove that he had benefited from the land swap deals struck during his tenure.