KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 11 — DAP national chairman Lim Guan Eng today called for the resignations of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki and Attorney General (AG) Tan Sri Idrus Harun for failing to act on the brewing multibillion ringgit littoral combat ship (LCS) scandal.

In a statement released today, he said that their failure to act on public complaints and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report until Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob issued a special directive showed that both men were unfit for their respective positions.

“That Azam Baki and Idrus Harun had to be summoned by the prime minister and ordered to speed up its investigation and drag all those responsible to court respectively is tantamount to an open admission that both Azam and Idrus has miserably failed their statutory duty to act independently and professionally without fear or favour,” the Bagan MP said.

He added: "The abject failure of both agencies to defend national interests and uphold the sanctity of the law to punish those involved in the misappropriation of funds in the RM9 billion LCS scandal cannot be justified."

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He also said that this issue highlighted the need for both posts to be independent from the prime minister’s control to avoid them being used as a political weapon.

Yesterday, Ismail Sabri proposed to have the 2019 LCS forensic auditing report declassified, urging MACC to hasten investigations into the issue and for the AG to prosecute responsible parties in the event of strong evidence arising.

On Monday, former defence minister Mohamad Sabu and his former deputy Liew Chin Tong demanded the declassification of three documents as part of the solution for the LCS scandal.

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The same day, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein told the Dewan Negara that the first of six LCSs purchased from Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) should be ready no later than two years from now.

Last week, he revealed that the MACC was investigating the matter.

The LCS project is the largest procurement in the history of the Defence Ministry with a total cost of RM9 billion.

The said contract began in 2013 with a 10-year time frame and six LCS ships were expected to be built and delivered to the country by the end of 2023.