Amid accusations the government was shafting taxpayers with another dodgy transaction, the Defence ministry received an additional RM493.3 million in allocations this year, justifying the increase was needed to maintain the country’s two Scorpene submarines.
The additional amount raises the ministry’s total budget to whopping total of RM11 billion. "The main purpose is to maintain our Scorpene submarines as that expense was not included in the budget,” the Star quoted Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as saying.
Indeed, Ahmad Zahid has much to explaining to do. The submarines were purchased in 2002 when Najib Razak was the Defence minister and this is 2011, how come in the 9 years the submarines have been on the defence list of hardware, no-one had bothered to factor in the cost for maintaining the said equipment? Would it not be prudent to have foreseen the cost of maintenance and prepare early?
Were the Scorpene costs deliberately understated to take the heat off Najib?
