By Adib Zalkapli - The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 — Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today wrapped up its probe into the two missing Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) F-5E jet engines, and concluded that there was no involvement of high-ranking officers in the theft.
“We are aware of the general perception that senior officers were involved, but there is no evidence,” said PAC chairman Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid after meeting with officials from the defence ministry.
Azmi also confirmed that the sacking of a brigadier-general last year had nothing to do with the missing engines.
“The engines did not go missing when it was being delivered as there was no record to say that the engines were taken out,” said Azmi, before adding that the case was purely a carefully planned theft with insider assistance.
The engines, he added, were discovered missing from RMAF’s storage facilities in Sungai Besi.
Among those present today were Defence Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Seri Abu Bakar Abdullah and RMAF chief, General Datuk Rodzali Daud.
The PAC met with defence ministry officials over the incident for the first time last week.
Azmi also told reporters that the RMAF had been upgrading and computerising its asset management system.
“From what we were told, they are constantly upgrading their system, and in this case they are taking steps to ensure that it does not recur,” said Azmi.
He also clarified that the engines were purchased for around RM300,000 each and were not worth RM50 million as was reported by the media earlier.
The two F-5E jet engines were stolen in 2007 and discovered missing one year later, before a police report was lodged.
RMAF Sergeant N. Tharmendran and company director Rajandran Prasad were charged early this month in connection with the theft.
Malaysia bought 14 F-5Es in 1974 and decommissioned them in 1999. One crashed in the Malacca Straits near Perak on May 31, 1995.
Only six of the jets remain operational after they came back to service in 2003
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