Annual audit of defence spending needed, says analyst

PETALING JAYA: A defence analyst has questioned the defence ministry’s allocation in the 2022 budget, saying parliamentary oversight is needed to ensure transparency in the way the funds are spent.

Lam Choong Wah, a former fellow at the Research for Social Advancement Centre gave the examples of sizeable funds allocated for the purchase of furniture for military families, and one-off allocations for “land and air defence”, both of which needed to be explained in further detail.

He also asked how many people in the defence ministry would be affected by the slashing of emoluments for contract staff to zero under Budget 2022.

The 2022 budget presented on Friday allocates RM16 billion to the defence ministry.

Lam said defence expenditure should be increased annually to offset inflation, update assets and introduce new defence capabilities.

However, more defence spending was not a priority now because of Covid-19. “Maintaining the same defence spending as last year’s allocation would be most rational,” he said.

Lam said the RM1.6 billion set aside for the air force would be used to procure unmanned aircraft systems and light combat aircraft which he said might be acquired next year.

On land and maritime assets, Lam believed that the allocations would focus on the current Gempita armoured vehicle and littoral combat ship projects.

“It was reported that RM1 billion for the littoral combat ship project is missing and untraceable.

“The procurement of Gempita armoured vehicles kicked off in 2011. Thus far, the defence contractor has delivered more than 200 units and RM7.02 billion has been paid,” he said, noting that the defence ministry only conducted an internal audit in 2020, nine years after the launch of the project.

Lam called for an annual audit of the defence ministry as much expenditure remained hidden and under the radar. — Free Malaysia Today