The National Feedlot Corporation scandal is growing by the day and it is expanding, out-of-control to the point that the original premise for the Auditor General's report that it was “a mess” may soon be overtaken by all the new, conflicting and misleading explanations.
“In fact, [National Feedlot Corporation (NFC)] has raised 8,016 head of cattle in 2010, surpassing its target of 8,000 head of cattle. We are importing cattle from Australia and we have to feed them for between four and six months. We do not slaughter them soon after arrival,” Salleh Ibrahim, husband to Cabinet minister Shahrizat Jalil, was reported as saying in a Bernama Online report.
They can't run away from the math of it
Salleh's explanation echoed the one given by Agriculture Minister Noh Omar and also what was stated in the Auditor General’s report when NFC was queried. But what is lost in all the counter banter is the whole premise for the Auditor General’s comment that the project was a mess. And it is truly a mess.
The total number of cattle that has been the bone of contention between all parties interested in the NFC project is but a mere speck compared to the context of the AG’s audit of the NFC project. The AG audited the planning, implementation and monitoring process of the NFC project. And taking the three parts as a whole, the NFC is truly mismanagement of epic proportions.
The NFC’s main goal is to raise 130 satellite farms that stand as feeders to the main slaughtering unit. Since the project's conception in 2008 till 2010, the total number of satellite farms set up amounts to zero.
This has forced NFC to start importing cattle from Australia, just to meet their target of 8,000 heads of cattle. Yet, from 2008 till 2010, only 5,742 heads have been slaughtered. For the span of two years, the total number of cattle brought in by NFC was 8,016; with 5,742 slaughtered and brought to market. Mohamad Salleh claims this as a success but he fails to tell the public that the goal for NFC was to raised 60,000 heads by 2015.
2008 till 2010 equals 8,016 versus 60,000 by 2015. The math prove that there is no way NFC will meet their target at the rate they are going; unless cows can grow out from acacias trees or there are 51,984 heads of cattle stashed away in some hidden luxury condo that we don’t know of. Yet!
This was what the AG was pointing out in its report. Based on the numbers and initial projections of 60,000 heads by 2015, the actual output for NFC was 3,289 for 2010 itself which is 41.1%. For the NFC to be classified a success, in the next 4 years (2011-1015), NFC has to import 12,994 heads of cattle per year!
Where is the breeding program - the heart of the project?
And this is where the mess is evident. The Entrepreneur Development Program that has the goal of producing 130 satellite cattle farms has stalled, even-though it forms the main thrust of the project for which the public funds were allocated for. There is no clear nor immediate action by NFC to create a breeding program.
The aim is to be self-sustaining, thus the idea of importing cattle from Australia does not do justice to this goal. This was clear when land allocated for the feeding and cultivating a stock of cows is still very much an acacia tree nursery. Are there no plans to clear this land of the trees and create fodder for the cattle as stated in the initial outline for the project?
The answer is neither yes or no since there is no operational structure to check against. A visit to the NFC website proves futile, since there is nothing to suggest that there is even a team assigned to the task of land clearing and fodder planting.
This was the debacle the AG's report was pointing to. Public funds have been allocated to the project, yet there is no proper or systematic plan drawn up by NFC that would ensure that Malaysia will be the biggest hub of halal meat production in the region.
Questions that NFC and Umno should look for answers to, instead of denying
Granted, nobody plans to fail. But in this case, the NFC will fail because there is no game plan at all. Instead, the money has been used to purchase assets that have no direct connection to cow breeding, rearing or meat production.
What efforts have been made by NFC to right the course of the project? Can the NFC meet the 60,000 head count by 2015? What plans does NFC have in store to achieve this 60,000 target? These are the questions, Mohamad Salleh and Noh Omar have to answer.
NFC’s response to this scandal has totally missed the ball, and the Auditor General and PKR - whose leaders including Rafizi Ramli and Zuraida Kamaruddin had led the charge - were right all along.
Shameful was the way that Salleh and other Umno luminaries including Muhyddin Yassin and Khairy Jamaluddin tried to pretend that all was hunky-dory at Beef Valley, Gemas, Malaysia.
Malaysia Chronicle
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