NFC minutes: PAC wants three letters

PAC chief Azmi Khalid is asking for approval letters from leaders of Pakatan Rakyat to make the minutes on the NFC meeting public.

PETALING JAYA: Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Azmi Khalid has added another condition for the minutes of the committee’s meeting on the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal to be made public.

The additional condition, Azmi said, was that leaders of the three Pakatan Rakyat parties must write a letter to him consenting that the minutes could be made public.

Previously, he said that only one letter signed by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim was required.

Speaking to FMT, Azmi said he would now need letters from DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang as well.

“They have to give me their signed letters of assurance that they will not fault PAC or its chairman for releasing them (the minutes) before they are presented to Parliament.

“This is important because in 2009, Lim raised the issue in Parliament and faulted the PAC chairman for making public statements about the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) issue before an official report was tabled in Parliament,” he explained.

PAC held only one meeting on the NFC fiasco on Nov 23, which was attended by representatives from the centre, Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Ministry, Finance Ministry and the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

On Tuesday, following calls from PAS vice-president Mahfuz Omar for the minutes to be made available to all parliamentarians, Azmi said the minutes could be made public, provided that two conditions were met.

The two conditions were that PAC members must agree to releasing the information and a formal letter from the opposition.

Meanwhile, Lim said the opposition had no objections for the minutes to be made public.

“The issue is not all these procedures for the minutes to be made public. The issue is if NFC and NFCorp (National Feedlot Corporation) were given a blank cheque to spend as it deems over the project without a clear development plan,” added the DAP leader.

Meanwhile, Mahfuz who also the Pokok Sena MP, said that he had already sent a letter yesterday evening directed to Azmi requesting for the minutes of the meeting.

NFCorp, a private corporation owned and operated by the family of Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, was engaged to assist NFC to boost beef production.