'When we pay a whopping RM6.1 billion for its six naval vessels, which is nearly nine times over the market price, it is an act of condoning rent-seeking activity.'

'Navy vessels cost 870 percent more'

Cala: What is rent-seeking? When the corrupted regime is prepared to pay a whopping RM6.1 billion for its six naval vessels, which is nearly nine times over the market price, it is an act of condoning rent-seeking activity.

The term rent-seeking was discovered by Tullock in 1967 and christened by Anne Krueger in 1974 (Buchanan, 2003). But Jean-Baptiste Say remained the first person who understood its many social ills (Grant and Brue, 2007, p 129) when he declared:

"If one individual, or one class, can call in the aid of authority to ward off the effects of competition, it acquires a privilege to the prejudice and at the cost of the whole community; it can then make sure of profits not altogether due to the productive services rendered, but composed in part of an actual tax upon consumers for its private profit; which tax it commonly shares with the authority that thus unjustly lends its support."

This is Najib's concept of ‘People First, Performance Now'. Is it a case for MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission)?

Hann Wei Toh: I briefly checked the amount invested by another country almost 10 years ago to develop its biotechnology industry. The figure was about RM9 billion.

If the Defence Ministry has a similar objective, perhaps the RM6 billion expenditure can be worthwhile. If it does not, then it is probably a waste.

I guess the politicians and the people should think in a little more depth and find more information. It is not right to object to every huge spending the government does without making comparisons.

The defence department has explained the reason for paying the ‘inflated amount', and it seems not too unreasonable. I look forward to hearing more from MP Tony Pua on why the investment is not worthwhile, and what the government should invest in instead.

Pemerhati: It looks like the corrupt Umnoputras, one of whom (Muhyddin Yassin) was described by the Selangor MB's political secretary as having a shallow intellect , are getting smarter. They must have realised that when they bought the Scorpene submarines, they only got about 15 percent in kickbacks while about 85 percent went to the manufacturers.

Now by this strategy of getting their cronies in Boustead to manufacture the patrol boats, they could increase their loot to about 85 percent. In this case, the amount of money they could steal works out to about RM5 billion and it is about 10 times more than what they stole from the Scorpene submarines deal.

That is why it is not hard to understand why PM Najib Razak sometimes makes threatening speeches and says things like, "Even if our bodies are crushed and our lives lost, brothers and sisters, whatever happens, we must defend Putrajaya."

TKC: We should not be surprised if the leakage from these patrol boats comes back as tens of thousands of brown envelopes of a couple of hundred ringgit each in the next general election. A lot of Malaysians will sell their votes at that kind of price.

Amaso: BN under Najib has been promising transparency but the Defence Ministry has secrecy in procurement to deliberately inflate purchase costs to suck our taxpayers' money. BN is withdrawing the subsidies (with the rakyat paying more for food and petrol), at the same time BN has billions to buy over-inflated military ships.

The Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNSSB) is just the middleman to facilitate the cost inflation to benefit BN cronies under the disguise of building a domestic defence industry.

Next, would BNSSB really want to learn how to construct OPVs? Would foreign countries buy OPVs from BNSSB when US, UK, Germany, etc, can offer better quality, more superior ones at half the costs? The answer to all is ‘no'.

BN has no transparency but tons of secrecy. Let's not be taken by surprise that after handing over the six OPVs, BNSSB will close shop and the company accounts disappeared without trace so the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) will never be able to investigate.

Sarawakian_3ff9: Just thinking about the commissions makes one's mouth dripping with saliva. No wonder Idris Jala said that the country will be bankrupt in a few years' time. I pity our children who will have to pay with their life of slavery.

Multi Racial: Corruption has gone to a level where those involved no longer feel wrong or guilty doing it. It is as if their God-given right to do so. The time has time for Malaysians to put a stop in this. If you still vote them, you have nobody to blame but yourself.

Sarajun Hoda: Is this a final assault on the national coffers before losing power? They must have gotten the idea from Saudi royalty during a recent visit. The Saudi royalty is stealing petro-money that rightly belong to its people and are amassing wealth in US banks in personal accounts. So this excess money from military purchases will be kept in foreign accounts to live in possible exile?

Not Confused: The actual cost of these vessels is probably around RM250 million each. The rest is reserved for commission, consultancy and kickbacks to the BN cronies who will all be circling like sharks as we speak to try to get their share of the pickings, which will amount to RM750 million for each ship.

That will buy many mansions, expensive cars and trips abroad for the lucky pillagers of the country's wealth.

Hamisu: 1980s: 10% corruption, 90% actual funding. 1990s: 20% corruption, 80% actual funding. 2000: 50% corruption, 50% actual funding. 2011: 90% corruption, 10% actual funding. Guess I can see how prices can be inflated about nine times more than actual prices.

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