Ibrahim Ali trying to intimidate Auditor-General, says PKR

By Yow Hong Chieh

January 23, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 23 — PKR leaders have slammed Datuk Ibrahim Ali’s insistence that the Auditor-General declare all is well at the National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp), describing it as an act of intimidation.

“This is trying to put political pressure on the Auditor-General,” PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli told The Malaysian Insider in what has become a major campaign issue as elections are expected soon.

“Ibrahim Ali (picture)doesn’t know anything about accounting so he isn’t in a position to question the audit report.”

Ibrahim, who heads Malay rights group Perkasa, yesterday urged the Auditor-General to issue an official statement to clarify that NFCorp was not in a mess, as reported in the latter’s audit report last year.

The Pasir Mas MP 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.

The Auditor-General’s office may have made small mistakes when preparing the national audit report as not all staff there were trained equally, Ibrahim added.

Rafizi also flayed the Perkasa chief for attempting to racialise the matter by pointing out that the whistleblower was “non-Malay”, claiming this was a “really low and dangerous” attempt to pander to the Malay community.

“This is a simple case of misappropriation of funds. It is done by Malays and non-Malays alike, like Perwaja’s Eric Chia and the PKFZ (Port Klang Free Zone) cases, which PKR also attacked,” he said.

NFCorp should just come clean about its expenses if it was serious about clearing its name instead of speaking through NGOs like Perkasa, Rafizi added.

Wanita PKR chief Zuraida Kamaruddin also questioned why NFCorp had gone to Perkasa, describing the move as a ploy by Umno to get the group to defend Salleh.

“Why is NFC presenting to this group of cartoons? This is ridiculous. All these are lame excuses,” she said.

Both Zuraida and Rafizi also denied that PKR had paid for the cashbook disclosed by the whistleblower — as suggested by Ibrahim — which was handed over to the party soon after the Auditor-General’s Report was released.

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 federal minister Datuk Shahrizat Jalil’s family.

Salleh, who heads NFCorp, is Shahrizat’s husband. Their three children also hold executive posts in the company.

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

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

But NFCorp’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.

She also filed a defamation suit against Rafizi and Zuraida for claiming she had misused federal funds meant for the cattle-raising scheme.

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