The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) should summon Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to its Eurocopter hearing and not just call up civil servants as he is the Defence Minister at the time of the critical decision-making before the ministerial swap with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Sept. 17 and who must bear final responsibility to Parliament for the Eurocopter deal.
The PAC postponed its second-day inquiry into the Eurcopter deal on Thursday because the Finance Ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Dr. Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah did not turn up to testify.
The PAC is right in demanding that the highest-ranking officer from the Finance Ministry should appear before it to testify, and Wan Abdul Aziz is setting a bad example of civil service leadership and guilty of contempt of Parliament in claiming that he was “busy with other duties”!
What is the nature of Wan Abdul Aziz’s “busy with other duties” that he is prepared to commit parliamentary contempt by not appearing before the PAC when summoned?
However, why is the PAC not summoning Najib to testify and justify the extraordinary billion-ringgit 12 Cougar EC725 Eurocopters procurement – as in other “first-world Commonwealth Parliaments”, the appearance of the Minister concerned would have been the first item of such PAC inquiry?! Continue reading “Eurocopter inquiry – PAC should summon Najib”