Describing National Feedlot Corporation's
(NFC) loan as a "completely blank cheque", DAP is demanding that top
cabinet members answer to the company's claim that it can spend the
RM250 million loan as it sees fit.
"If true, then the 'political masters' responsible for this decision at the relevant time... should be hauled up before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for the whole truth to be told," said DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang.
In his statement today, he suggested that then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, then chairperson of the cabinet committee on high impact projects and deputy prime minister Najib Abdul Razak or then agriculture minister Muhyiddin Yassin testify before the PAC.
"If
untrue, it is the responsibility of the PAC to get to the bottom of the
matter and report to Parliament when it reconvenes on March 12," Lim
said.
He added that the PAC should convene an emergency meeting on the matter, especially since NFC's statement contradicted the Finance Ministry, which told the PAC that the loan could only be used for its intended purpose.
Lim was responding to NFC's statement yesterday that the terms of its loan did not impose any limits on how it should be used, including property investments even though the money was meant for ensuring beef self-sufficiency in the country.
NFC had been under fire for allegedly misusing the loan for unrelated expenses, such as three luxury condominiums worth about RM44.6 million in Singapore.
The condominiums were registered under the names of Women and Family Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s family members, who are also NFC’s senior management staff.
Shahrizat and her family members have denied any wrongdoing, and NFC justified the purchases as an investment to put the money to good use while its feedlot project was temporality halted for a viability study.
Lim also posed a series of questions and challenges to NFC via Twitter, which are:
"If true, then the 'political masters' responsible for this decision at the relevant time... should be hauled up before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for the whole truth to be told," said DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang.
In his statement today, he suggested that then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, then chairperson of the cabinet committee on high impact projects and deputy prime minister Najib Abdul Razak or then agriculture minister Muhyiddin Yassin testify before the PAC.
"If
untrue, it is the responsibility of the PAC to get to the bottom of the
matter and report to Parliament when it reconvenes on March 12," Lim
said.He added that the PAC should convene an emergency meeting on the matter, especially since NFC's statement contradicted the Finance Ministry, which told the PAC that the loan could only be used for its intended purpose.
Lim was responding to NFC's statement yesterday that the terms of its loan did not impose any limits on how it should be used, including property investments even though the money was meant for ensuring beef self-sufficiency in the country.
NFC had been under fire for allegedly misusing the loan for unrelated expenses, such as three luxury condominiums worth about RM44.6 million in Singapore.
The condominiums were registered under the names of Women and Family Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s family members, who are also NFC’s senior management staff.
Shahrizat and her family members have denied any wrongdoing, and NFC justified the purchases as an investment to put the money to good use while its feedlot project was temporality halted for a viability study.
Lim also posed a series of questions and challenges to NFC via Twitter, which are:
- Publicise the NFC’s loan agreement;
- Specify the salary and perks drawn by Shahrizat’s family members each month;
- Respond to each allegation against NFC;
- Answer whether NFC agrees that it plunged Najib’s administration into a credibility crisis, and whether it would support a royal commission of inquiry into NFC; and,
- Answer whether NFC’s prerogative to invest in its best interests include “the right to trample on public or national interests.”
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