A-G must come clean on state of NFCorp, says Ibrahim Ali

UPDATED @ 03:06:57 PM 22-01-2012

By Yow Hong Chieh

January 22, 2012

The National Feedlot Centre in Gemas, Negri Sembilan. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 — The Auditor-General must issue an official statement clarifying that the controversial National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) is not in a mess, Datuk Ibrahim Ali said today.

The Perkasa chief said this after meeting NFCorp chairman Datuk Mohamad Salleh Ismail, who said the office of the Auditor-General had already agreed in private that the company’s affairs were in order.

Salleh, husband to federal minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil, had called for the meeting with the Malay rights group and 11 other NGOs to brief them on the NFCorp.

“It’s not in a mess. Everything is in order. But the Auditor-General has not made a formal announcement,” Ibrahim told reporters at Hotel Putra here following the meeting.

“I urge the Auditor-General to please be fair to everybody. He must release an official statement.”

The Pasir Mas MP also said the Auditor-General’s office may have made small mistakes when preparing the national audit report as not all staff are trained equally well.

“When they did the report, there were some elements that were accurate and some not so accurate because of weaknesses of the officers,” he said.

Ibrahim, however, stressed that he was not taking sides and that he would leave it to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police to carry out a proper investigation into NFCorp’s finances.

He added that Perkasa will stand by the results of the probe by authorities into the alleged misappropriation of federal funds by the company, pointing out that it was the group’s responsibility to fight abuses of power and corruption.

The publicly funded NFCorp hit national headlines following last year’s Auditor-General’s Report, and has continued to hog the limelight after it was linked to Shahrizat’s family.

PKR has since made several revelations relating to the scandal, including NFC’s purchase of two luxury condominium units in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, and the alleged use of project funds to pay for Shahrizat’s and her family’s personal expenses.

The opposition party has also alleged that Shahrizat’s family used nearly RM600,000 of the NFC project funds to settle their credit card bills in 2009.

But NFC’s management has maintained that the credit card expenses were solely for business purposes.

It has also denied allegations that funds from the RM250-million government loan were channelled into its accounts before the loan agreement was signed.

Shahrizat applied for three weeks’ leave from her duties two weeks ago after new allegations of bribery surfaced in the NFC project.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced last week that the government would appoint an auditor to scrutinise NFC’s books in light of PKR’s accusations.