Party strategic director Rafizi Ramli said this was because freezing assets alone would not allow the full extent of the publicly-funded cattle scheme’s alleged financial abuse to be known.
“We still want an administrator to go in and conduct a full audit,” he told The Malaysian Insider on the sidelines of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) convention here.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak disclosed today that the NFC’s assets had been frozen for the time being, according to Bernama Online.
He also said he had instructed Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Noh Omar to study how best to resolve the NFC issue.
Rafizi (picture) also said Najib would also have to reveal how he intended to recover NFC funds allegedly transferred to overseas private companies owned by federal minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil and her family.
Shahrizat’s husband, Datuk Mohamad Salleh Ismail, runs the NFC.
“We would have to wait for the details as to how and under what law Najib is going to recover all these assets,” Rafizi said.
He added that Najib and Muhyiddin could not push all blame to Shahrizat as they too were responsible for awarding the project to her family in the first place.
“Najib and Muhyiddin cannot wash their hands (of this project)... It was because of their oversight and negligence that all these monies were misappropriated and transferred out in the first place,” he said.
The NFC issue came to light when the 2010 Auditor-General’s Report pointed out that the corporation had badly failed to meet production targets.
Shahrizat applied for three weeks’ leave from her duties, starting yesterday, after new allegations of bribery surfaced recently involving the RM250 million NFC project.
NFC assets have been frozen, says PM
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said the National Feedlot Corporation's (NFC) assets have been frozen after claims that the company allegedly misspent a RM250 million government soft loan surfaced.
The premier revealed this today when commenting on the decision by Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil's decision to go on a three-week leave from ministerial duties.
Shahrizat
has faced mounting calls to resign from the government as her husband,
Mohamed Salleh Ismail is the executive chairperson of NFC which is
embroiled in controversy.According to Bernama, Najib said the decision would allow the authority to investigate if Shahrizat was involved in the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) issue.
The investigation, he adds, would begin from the start and look into whether Shahrizat in her capacity of a minister was involved in the process of granting the project to her family.
"I've discussed with Shahrizat about the decision to take the leave, and it is an appropriate decision as it allows the authority to carry out a thorough investigation.
"Shahrizat said she was willing to be investigated fully. What happens after this will depend on the outcome of the investigation," he told reporters after declaring open the National Farmers, Breeders and Fishermen's Day in Parit Buntar today.
DPM looking into the matter
Shahrizat said in a statement on Thursday that she had applied for three weeks' leave, starting yesterday.
The NFC issue came to light when the 2010 Auditor-General's Report, released in October, pointed out that the corporation had failed to achieve its objectives.
The prime minister also said that he had asked Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Noh Omar to study how best can the NFC issue be resolved.
The NFC is the "meat valley" project in Gemas, Negeri Sembilan aimed at increasing the production of local meat and reducing dependency on import for such product.
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