KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 — The defence minister’s office today lodged a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to probe why the previous government allegedly instructed the Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) to take over the Automated Enforcement System (AES) project at an above-market price rate of RM555 million.
Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu’s special functions officer Rafizal Ali said the report was lodged following findings by a special panel chaired by former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang, which had raised doubts on the matter.
“Therefore, a report to the MACC was made today in order for a further investigation to be carried out to identify the reason for the order or proposal for LTAT to take over the AES at a price of RM555 million which exceeds the market price, while also exposing the contributions of army personnel to the risk of losses,” he said in a statement today.
Rafizal said the defence minister’s office had today handed to the MACC findings of Ambrin’s committee’s investigation on the implementation of the AES project under the previous administration.
Rafizal explained the findings presented by Ambrin’s investigation committee on procurements, governance and finance (JKSTUPKK) to the Defence Ministry on January 28.
Rafizal said Ambrin’s committee had found that the implementation of the AES project “was more profitable to the concession company and had placed the government at risk of losses”.
He said the committee had also discovered alleged “interference by members of the administration including the former prime minister and several past Cabinet ministers that were more towards the tendency of political interests”.
“Investigations also found that there was doubt on the proposal for LTAT to take over the AES project which was only made in a discussion that was not minuted between the former prime minister and several ministers in September 2014.
“The investigation committee was of the view that the selection of LTAT to take over AES was more towards an attempt to cover up allegations that the government was trying to do a bail out. There are doubts on why LTAT had to pay RM555 million to take over the AES, when the original cost was only RM40 million,” he added.
In August 2018, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the federal government will repay in stages the RM555 million that LTAT had used to take over the AES project from the two private concessionaires ATES Sdn Bhd and Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd.
Loke said the RM555 million sum from LTAT was used by the previous administration to pay the two companies whose assets were only 47 speed-trap cameras along the highways.
