PETALING JAYA, Nov 18 — PKR is now demanding the Najib administration discloses all Cabinet meeting minutes from 2006 onwards to determine if minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil was directly involved in the decision to award the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) project to her husband’s company.
PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli said this was because yesterday’s rebuttal by the NFC over the issue had only validated all exposés made so far by the party against the company.
“He (Mohamad) answered to nine exposures. But none of them, none of them were denials or a rejection of our claims. Everything that he said was merely to explain, give excuses to what we have exposed,” Rafizi told a press conference here, adding PKR is now emboldened to pursue the issue further.
Instead, he said Mohamad had made three major admissions when addressing the issue yesterday — that his company had no experience in the cattle farming industry prior to the project award; that the RM250 million government loan had not been accompanied by a repayment schedule; and that the company had purchased “not one, but two” luxury condominium units for a whopping RM13.8 million in total.
The admissions, said Rafizi, clearly proved there were elements of corruption in the entire NFC project.
“They tried to explain the nitty-gritty details, why the cows had cost so much and so on ... but we want to bring the focus back now to the key issues at hand — accountability, responsibility, conflict of interest and the trust we have in our government to handle taxpayers’ money.
“And the key issue now ... was Shahrizat involved or not?” he continued.
Rafizi said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak must grapple with the controversy immediately and publicly disclose all Cabinet meeting minutes that involved any discussion related to the NFC and the decision to award the contract, which he said took place between 2006 and 2008.
The project kicked off in 2008.
“If someone has an interest during the discussion on the awarding of a contract, that someone must declare her interest and exclude herself from the decision-making process.
“So, how extensive was Shahrizat’s involvement during the decision-making process? Did she or did she not exclude herself? Is it too difficult to disclose the Cabinet meeting minutes? It would be a good start,” said Rafizi.
Mohamad held a press conference yesterday to selected mainstream media organisations at the NFC office in Gemas, Negri Sembilan, where he defended his company against PKR’s allegations.
According to media reports from the press conference, Mohamad had claimed that the cattle farming project had gone beyond its set target, disputing a federal audit describing the scheme as being “in a mess”.
He also defended his company’s purchase of two units at the luxurious One Menerung condominium in Bangsar, saying it was a sound investment which yielded 12.9 per cent returns in the first year.
“What we had originally exposed was RM9.8 million (for the purchase). Now, I am shocked at the audacity of the NFC to not only fail to deny misappropriation but to proudly declare that they bought not one, but two condominium units and then claim 12.9 per cent in returns,” said Rafizi.
He said in a Berita Harian report, Mohamad had also admitted the RM250 million government loan for the project had not been accompanied by any repayment schedule.
“Meaning, there is no need for repayment? Although the RM250 million is a loan, it is more like a grant or an injection of funds. If it is a loan, surely there is a repayment period and interest involved,” he said.
Rafizi also disclosed further information on the NFC project, which he said was proof that Mohamad’s company had no experience or expertise in the cattle farming industry.
He said according to the NFC’s records, obtained from a whistleblower, during the first year of operations, the firm had suffered losses of RM542,201 due to unforeseen cattle deaths.
“In total, 113 cattle were slaughtered but 121 died during their journey to the NFC. So, for every one cow slaughtered, one died,” he said.
In 2009, added Rafizi, NFC suffered losses of RM613,897 due to 137 cattle deaths.
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