PAC hearing on NFC stymied by tight-lipped GM

The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing on the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) ran into an unexpected obstacle today as the company’s representative called before the committee today kept mum on the advice of her lawyers.

“Wan Zurina Saaran is the human resources general manager and she was accompanied by two lawyers. The lawyers did most of the talking and they cited that as it might incriminate their client, they instructed her not to answer the questions,” PAC member Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan told reporters when met in the MPs’ lounge.

According to Abdul Rahman (right), the PAC then argued that the NFC general manager can choose which questions she can safely answer, recounting similar options the committee had given to former transport minister Chan Kong Choy, when asked to appear during the committee’s probe into the Port Klang Free Zone.

The lawyers later argued that their client was there not on the direct invitation of the committee, but was asked to attend by the Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Ministry.

“We shall write another letter, to issue an invitation to attend directly from the PAC to NFC,” Abdul Rahman said, adding that this will take some time, before they can reconvene.

The 9am meeting which took only over half an hour, was cut short and had to be adjourned, to be rescheduled to a later date as the committee look to writing another invitation to the NFC official.

[More to follow]