Rafizi to expose more NFC scandals next week

PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli will resume exposing fresh scandals in the RM250million NFC debacle in a bid to force Prime Minister Najib Razak into taking responsibility and working harder to clear the RM250million NFC corruption debacle.

So far, Najib is perceived to have done little if anything at all to weed out the corruption manifesting itself in the national cattle breeding project.

According to Rafizi, a new move by Najib to call for a tender and replace the current managers with a new overseer was a covert attempt to cover up a probe into the scandal involving the family of Umno Women's minister Shahrizat Jalil.

"As such attempts are so clear, I have no choice but to continue to expose more scandals in the NFC, starting next week. Only with mounting pressure from rakyat will Najib be made accountable for his mistakes, as in the case of Shahrizat Jalil (through her exit from cabinet)," Rafizi said in a statement out on Wednesday.

New bidders

The National Feedlot Centre project was awarded to NFC Corp, a private firm owned by the husband and children of Shahrizat Jalil, who is also the head of the Umno Women's wing. The family was accused of abusing their power and leveraging on a government soft loan to purchase luxury condos as well as other personal items including overseas holidays.

Agriculture minister Noh Omar had raised eyebrows a day ago when he told Parliament the government might call a tender for new bidders to take over the project from the beleaguered Shahrizat family.

It prompted fears that the Najib administration might use a new overseer as an excuse to end the probe and help to cover up for the Shahrizats and other top Umno leaders including former premier Abdullah Badawi and current deputy premier Muhyiddin Yassin.

"The core issue is the role of Najib Abdul Razak in awarding the RM250 million project to NFC, although he was well-aware that NFC, the company owned by Shahrizat Abdul Jalil's family members, has no experience in this field. Najib has not responded to the issue. Instead, his move to open up a new tender shows his intention to overwrite his mistakes," said Rafizi.

No details given to the public so far

The PKR leader has led a barrage of revelations against the NFC directors, with public outrage culminating in the arrest of Salleh Ibrahim - the NFC boss and Shahrizat's husband.

Rafizi also opposed the tender, saying that it should not be called without completing a thorough audit and probe into the hands played by Najib, Abdullah and Muhyiddin.

"The PM had announced the freezing of the NFC assets, but the operations, expenditures and asset structure of NFC and its related companies still run as normal. Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had announced the appointment of an independent auditor to probe into NFC. But we are not told about the scope of this auditing, who the auditor will be and when the audit report will be tabled in Parliament," said Rafizi.

Malaysia Chronicle