DPM ultimately responsible for NFC mess, says Kit Siang

DPM ultimately responsible for NFC mess, says Kit Siang

By Clara Chooi

January 17, 2012
Malaysian insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 — DAP’s Lim Kit Siang suggested today that “full and final responsibility” for the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal should rest with Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

The Ipoh Timor MP said that this was because it was Muhyiddin, as the former Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister, who approved the RM250 million federally-funded project in 2007.

Lim pointed to a statement by the National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) issued this afternoon which confirmed that the government, through Muhyiddin’s ministry, had inked a loan agreement for the project on December 6, 2007.

As such, Lim (picture) said a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) should be formed and its probe should also look into Muhyiddin’s role and responsibility as the minister in charge then.

“Let the RCI answer the question: Who else apart from Muhyiddin should bear the full and final responsibility for the NFC ‘mess’ where the objective of the project on cattle production to boost the nation’s beef self-sufficiency could go so wrong.

“NFC not only failed to meet its target, (but) the RM250 million 2 per cent-interest soft loan had been diverted not only to buy two luxury condominiums in Bangsar and a luxury condominium in Singapore but also for many other dubious transactions,” Lim said in a statement here.

In its clarification this afternoon, NFCorp also explained that its loan agreement with the government covers a period of 20 years, with repayment to commence early this year through annual instalments over 17 years at 2 per cent per annum.

The company, which is being run by minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abd Jalil’s family and is currently under probe for graft, said the first RM7 million drawdown from the RM250 million loan was only made in January 2008.

The statement was issued to rebut a claim made by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last year and published by the media that the loan had been disbursed in 2007 although it was only signed in 2010.

“The NFCorp statement today also reminds Malaysians that the PAC has been acting in a most unusual manner as, apart from its initial meeting, it had failed to carry out full investigations into the scandal,” Lim added.

He said the PAC’s full investigation report should be ready to be presented when Parliament sits next on March 12.

“Malaysians are entitled to know why the PAC is behaving in so tardy a fashion, giving the impression that the PAC is avoiding from coming to grips with the issue,” he said.