NFC's guilt is UMNO's guilt: Mat Sabu

Should National Feedlot Corporation be found guilty of abusing the RM250 million government money as revealed over the past few months, the responsiblity must be borne by the UMNO-BN government for being the accomplice in the scandal, said PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu .

“Now, Nazri (Aziz, minister in the Prime Minister’s Department) himself admits that there is breach of trust by NFC for violating the loan agreement. Why did the government not act from the early stage" Mat Sabu said, referring to Nazri's statement that by returning the RM250 million to the government, the case should be considered closed and no action be taken against Wanita UMNO head Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, whose family members are at the centre of the scandal.

Mat Sabu said the UMNO-BN government should stop feigning ignorance over the spate of revelations of financial abuse in the NFC.

As such, he said Shahrizat and family were not the only ones to be punished.

“The UMNO government is the wrong party in the approval of the RM250 million loan for the feedlot project. First, it was revealed that it was the government that gave this soft loan to NFC without adhering to financial practices, then they pretended not to know anything about it and refused to act, in fact they were defending the project, including the prime minister,” he said.

Shahrizat’s son, NFC chief executive officer Wan Shahinur Izmir, had earlier claimed that the company had the prerogative how to spend the RM250 million loan by the government as there was no restriction stipulated in the agreement. The embattled NFC was exposed of spending the money on luxury items such as condominiums, holidays and lands which had nothing to do with its cattle-rearing project.

Nazri meanwhile had said that “one does not need to be a lawyer” to conclude that NFC was guilty for constructive breach of trust.

“The loan was given just for that. If you use the money for something else, you don’t need to be a lawyer to see that there is a breach of trust, it’s so simple,” he quipped.

-Harakahdaily