Just doing our job, police tell NFCorp

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — Police brushed off today accusations by the scandal-ridden National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) that the force was “unfairly” pre-empting any charge of criminal breach of trust (CBT), saying it was only doing its job.

Bukit Aman commercial crimes investigation department director Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan told Bernama today it is standard practice for police to include recommendations when handing over investigations papers to the Attorney-General.

“If they’re not satisfied, it’s up to them. We’ll carry on with our duty. Why else did we investigate?” he was quoted by the state news agency as saying.

Syed Ismail added that it was still up to the Attorney-General’s Chambers to decide whether to charge directors of the company, whose board is made up by the family of senior minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, over the RM250 million National Feedlot Centre (NFC) project.

NFCorp denied yesterday any CBT in its loan agreement with the government and questioned Syed Ismail’s motives for disclosing the recommended charges on Saturday, claiming the police had failed to understand the case’s “dynamics of the facts and the law”.

“NFCorp therefore wishes to enquire the police if, in their investigations, they had paid enough consideration to the fact that there is total lacking of the elements of dishonesty in this case, which is a primary ingredient of CBT and cheating?” the firm said in the statement.

The company, which operates the publicly-funded cattle-farming project, is chaired by Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat’s husband, Datuk Seri Mohamad Salleh Ismail. Their three children also hold executive posts in the company.
 
The NFC hit the headlines after it made it into the Auditor-General’s Report last year, and has continued to hog the limelight after it was linked to Shahrizat and her family.

NFCorp has been repeatedly accused by PKR of abusing its RM250 million federal loan by spending on non-related expenses such as the purchase of several luxury condominium units in Bangsar and Singapore, land in Putrajaya and personal umrah trips.

The government awarded NFCorp the project in 2006, when Shahrizat first held the women, family and community development portfolio in Cabinet.

She applied for three weeks’ leave from her ministerial duties last month after new allegations of bribery surfaced and resumed work on February 8. She was called in for questioning by the MACC on the same day.