The review committee believes the case has become highly politicised and wants it closed as soon as possible.
The high-level panel urged that the case be closed as soon as possible.
The MACC’s operations review panel (PPO) chairman Hadenan Abdul Jalil, a former auditor-general, said that the MACC had already completed investigations on the NFC but the Attorney-General’s Chambers, which wants more information, had returned the case files.
“Investigations have been completed and the files given to the A-G’s Chambers; however, the papers were returned for further investigations. Because there have been no conclusions, we can’t reveal more on the results of the probe.
“However, (if the A-G decides to close the case), the PPO still has the ‘final say’ on this,” said Hadenan, who gave a press briefing on the PPO’s first meeting this year.
He said that the PPO was given a lengthy special briefing by the MACC since the case is of public interest.
“This case has gone ‘out of control’ and [has become] highly politicised. MACC has to decide if Shahrizat (Abdul Jalil) has any role in the decision-making of the government relating to the funding of the NFC. That is the prime objective of the MACC’s investigations, which is separate from the police probe on the operations of the National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp),” Hadenan said.
Shahrizat – the women, community and family development minister – and her family had been accused of abusing over RM62 million in land, property and expenses unrelated to cattle farming although they denied any wrongdoing.
‘We need a conclusion’
“Everybody is waiting for (the results of the case); the longer it drags, the more it becomes a problem for many of us. We feel that this case must be closed immediately. To be fair to the person who is involved… we need a conclusion,” Hadenan said.
“We have to state that the welfare and interest of the accused and those who are implicated should also be (considered),” he added.
“We feel that the case should be closed. There’s no point dragging it… if the case is weak, there’s no point going to court,” he said.
Asked what he meant by saying that the case should be “closed” and whether it meant that nobody should be charged, Hadenan said: “No, no, no. It has to be resolved. A solution must come into the picture.”
Asked if the PPO has given any deadline for MACC to finish investigations, he said this was out of PPO’s powers, but added that the case was important.
“In any legal case, there must be justice to all parties, including those who are being accused… I think we have interviewed all the witnesses. This is in relation to about abuse of power or corruption. Nothing to do with the running of the NFC,” he said.
The PPO is an independent group set up by the government to re-study and review decisions of the A-G on MACC cases.
The panel is supposedly a “check-and-balance” mechanism for the MACC and can recommend the A-G to reopen cases that have been previously closed. The PPO members are specialists and professionals appointed by prime minister.
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