All eyes on Paris: Bala can help speed up Scorpenes probe
Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle
With the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission failing to show up and the London press conference over, private investigator P Balasubramaniam will be making his way to Paris, where he is due to tell French authorities all he knows about Prime Minister Najib Razak’s acquisition of two costly Scorpene submarines.
In Paris, he will be meeting the French investigating team on Monday. They have indicated to Malaysian civil rights grroup SUARAM their focus will be on procurement procedures and the information Bala has on the roles played by his boss Razak Baginda and Najib, who was then the defense minister sanctioning the RM6.7 billion purchase from French firm DCNS.
“We are quite optimistic that Bala can help to move things a step closer to the truth. Because of the special position he was in, he may possess a few missing pieces of the puzzle and that will help to quicken the entire process,” SUARAM director Cynthia Gabriel told Malaysia Chronicle.
“It is very important that the probe moves as quickly as possible because it is a multi-tiered process. Once police investigations are complete, it will go back to the prosecutors and then possibly trial. But most importantly, we would stress, is that the French authorities make public all of the findings as soon as they can.”
SUARAM earlier this year lodged a complaint with the Parisian authorities after the Najib administration repeatedly refused to initiate a thorough investigation, despite public outcry over an alleged RM570 million kickback from DCNS.
This amount was booked by the defense ministry as co-ordination and support fees to a firm controlled by Baginda, who is a close friend of the Malaysian PM and his wife Rosmah Mansor. Baginda’s firm, Perimekar, has no record of any previous experience or expertise in submarines care or technology. Both Scorpenes have since been delivered, but one has serious malfunctions and still cannot dive.
