Shahrizat’s family denies abusing NFC credit cards

CEO says PKR is insulting the public’s intelligence.

PETALING JAYA: The National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) today denied that several members of Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s family used the company’s credit card to spend close to RM600,000 for personal purchases.

The allegation was made by PKR.

NFC chief executive officer Wan Shahinur Izran Mohamed Salleh said on Twitter that PKR was attempting to deceive and was insulting the public’s intelligence. He was responding to a reporter’s question.

He said NFC credit cards were used only for company expenditures.

“PKR will always make slanderous and defamatory statements,” he said. “This is politics. We will cooperate in any investigation.”

Izran, 27, is Shahrizat’s son.

Yesterday, Izran said on Twitter that he and his family had been receiving threatening SMSes from anonymous senders and had made numerous police reports.

Earlier today, PKR strategist Mohd Rafizi Ramli claimed that Shahrizat’s family spent a total of RM593,500 in 2009 using NFC credit credit cards.

Yesterday, NFC executive director Wan Shahinur Izmir, Izran’s brother, said the company would continue with “business as usual” although its assets were frozen amid a probe by the police
and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

Rafizi today lambasted that statement, saying that all executives in NFC should be suspended and a corporate administrator appointed to take over its management. He said a full audit should be conducted on the company.

NFC came under attack from the opposition parties , particularly PKR, after the release of the 2010 Auditor-General’s Report, which said the publicly-funded corporation was “in a mess” and had failed to meet national targets for beef production.

Shahrizat’s family has been accused of misappropriating RM250 million of public funds meant for NFC in the purchase of a luxury car and luxury condominiums in Bangsar and Singapore. PKR has also alleged that NFC beef was channelled to luxury restaurants owned by Shahrizat’s family.

Shahrizat, who is also Wanita Umno chief, has denied that she was involved in any wrongdoing. However, she faces growing calls to quit as minister, not only from the opposition parties, but from within Barisan Nasional and Umno as well.

Last week, she said she was going on leave for three weeks.