PAC meeting on NFC can be made public

However, two conditions must be met before minutes of the meeting can be revealed.

PETALING JAYA: The minutes of the meeting of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the controversial National Feedlot Centre (NFC) can be made public, said PAC chairman, Azmi Khalid.

Azmi, the Padang Besar MP, however, said that two conditions must be met before the minutes of the meeting can be revealed.

The two conditions are PAC members must agree on it (releasing the information) and opposition parties must write officially to Azmi conveying their approval.

It is understood that the leader of opposition coalition, Anwar Ibrahim, must sign the letter.

Yesterday, Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar called for the minutes of the meeting to be released and to be made available to all MPs before the start of the next parliamentary session in March.

The one and only PAC meeting on NFC scandal took place on Nov 23.

Mahfuz said he would write an official letter to Azmi and also inform Anwar that the latter must sign it (requesting for the minutes of the meeting to be made public).

It is not clear what actually transpired at the Nov 23 meeting. Initial reports stated that only representatives from the Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Ministry participated.

Since then, there have been reports indicating that many more representatives from government agencies were also present.

Mahfuz, who is also PAS vice-president, said he was informed that the meeting involved officials from the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Finance Ministry, and NFC.

Last week, PAC member and Petaling Jaya Utara MP, Tony Pua, also revealed that a senior official from the Finance Ministry had informed that the RM250 million soft loan given to the National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) was never meant to be used to purchase property.

This information came amidst revelations that NFCorp had purchased two more condominium units in Singapore which cost RM34.5 million. It had earlier allegedly bought condominium units in Kuala Lumpur.

It was also revealed that NFCorp had allegedly used the RM250 million loan to purchase plots of land in Putrajaya, a luxurious car and to finance a holiday trip abroad.

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.