PETALING JAYA: Negotiations to purchase 12 Eurocopter helicopters for the RMAF are still on, sources said.

When contacted yesterday, a source said high-level officials of the Defence Ministry had not received any instruction from the Government to cancel the programme.

Another source said no decision had been made on the matter yet.

They were commenting on a news report published on an Internet news portal which claimed that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had decided to cancel the purchase of the helicopters.

The Government had recently announced the purchase of 12 Cougar EC725 helicopters from the European firm to replace the ageing Nuris at a cost of RM2.3bil.

Najib had said last week that the Cabinet had given the Public Accounts Committee the green light to investigate the procurement process of the helicopters.

Najib, who is also the former Defence Minister, had suggested that the PAC investigate the matter.

PAC chairman Datuk Azmi Khalid had said that the committee would scrutinise the details leading to the purchase of the new helicopters during a two-day meeting starting tomorrow.

Among those who would be called in to assist the PAC is Defence Ministry secretary-general Datuk Abu Bakar Abdullah.

Dzirhan Mahadzir, a correspondent of Jane's Defence Weekly, said the helicopter purchase programme was still at the negotiation stage between the Government and Eurocopter after the Letter of Intent (LOI) had been issued.

Dzirhan said the LOI meant that the negotiations would still be subject to pre-conditions before the final selection is made and a Letter of Award (LOA) given later on.

He added that the LOI would enable the Government and the vendor to plan and negotiate the best offer that could be worked out before the LOA is handed over.

"It will be more appropriate if a postponement is announced if the Government finds that it cannot make the deal due to external factors such as the national economic condition.

"But it will be odd if the deal is called off now, because everyone will have to go back to square one and make a new tender. There's a lot of speculation in the news report about the cancellation if you ask me," he added.