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By Debra Chong, The Malaysian Insider After several meetings stretched out over the past one week, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has cleared the federal government of scandal into the RM1.6 billion Eurocopter military deal.
However, the decision was not unanimous as some of the members felt that the deal to procure the Eurocopter EC725 Cougar to replace the Royal Malaysian Air Force's 42-year-old fleet of Nuri helicopters was not itself conducted properly. "Our concern is that this deal, to put it in a way, is made for Eurocopter. None of the tenderers were called in for tender clarification of the tender document," noted one PAC member. Seven helicopter manufacturers had made a bid for the RMAF tender, which was to equip the Defence Ministry with aircraft for search-and rescue missions primarily, and which could later on be used for military combat missions. Chairman Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid concluded today that he was satisfied that there had been no misappropriation of funds into the federal government's procurement in the Eurocopter deal. "PAC's responsibility is to see if procedure was followed. In the evaluation process, we found that the procedure has been followed," Azmi told reporters after wrapping up the meeting with officials from the Defence and Finance Ministries in Parliament this evening. He added that the only aspect of the deal found to be dissatisfactory was the fact that no physical examination or flight test had been carried out specifically for this tender. Azmi added that the PAC proposed for the Defence Ministry to conduct a proper physical evaluation on the air craft before the delivery if they decided to go ahead with the procurement, which is now deferred.
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