Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin commits to a comprehensive cleansing of the MAF, pledging full MACC cooperation and procurement reforms to restore its standing as Malaysia’s most trusted institution.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Defence has reaffirmed its commitment to preserving the Malaysian Armed Forces as the nation’s most trusted institution.

Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said this requires a comprehensive cleansing of all elements of misconduct and integrity breaches.

He stressed that any issue involving the standing of the MAF would have serious implications for the country.

The ministry has therefore taken immediate damage control measures to ensure the armed forces’ credibility remains intact.

“We are determined to eradicate all elements of wrongdoing and to provide full cooperation to the authorities such as the MACC to clear our name,” Mohamed Khaled told the Dewan Negara.

He was replying to a supplementary question from Senator Datuk Abdul Halim Suleiman.

As part of governance recovery, the ministry is improving its procurement and implementation systems.

This includes revamping a more transparent asset procurement process and strengthening it through digitalisation and artificial intelligence.

Mohamed Khaled reiterated that a directive to freeze procurement would not affect MAF readiness and operations.

He clarified the measure is temporary and was followed by new Ministry of Finance guidelines within three weeks.

On January 16, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim ordered a temporary freeze on all MAF and police procurement linked to corruption issues.

This followed controversies involving several former top military leaders.

Mohamed Khaled detailed conditions under the new governance framework set by the Ministry of Finance.

These include cross-ministerial checks and balances and enhanced technical and financial evaluation processes.

The evaluation committees will have a more competent composition of members not limited to user agencies.

He added that procurement involving overseas original equipment manufacturers must be through international open tenders.

The Ministry of Finance also stipulates new thresholds for finalising procurement at the board level.

Procurement by quotation between RM300,000 and RM500,000 for supplies must be chaired by the ministry’s deputy secretary-general.

For works, this applies to quotations between RM300,000 and RM3 million.

 The Sun Malaysia