PKR wants the government to compel former federal minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s family to put up their assets as collateral until the RM250 million soft loan to the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) is redeemed.

azlan Its strategy director Rafizi Ramli also recommended that if the company fails to commence repayment of the loan, which has been in default since January, the government should auction of their assets “to recover the public funds”.

“(Prime Minister) Najib Abdul Razak’s most important responsibility right now is getting the RM250 million loan back,” said Rafizi at a press conference at the Parliament lobby.

“As the prime minister and the finance minister, he must use the powers vested in him to get the consent of Shahrizat’s family to have their assets given as collateral to the government,” said Rafizi.

Rafizi stressed that if the assets are not given as collateral in a week’s time, PKR will continue exposing various other assets purchased by Shahrizat’s kin and all other alleged abuses linked to NFC.

NFC’s operations have attracted negative comments in the 2010 Auditor-General’s Report, which highlighted weakness in the National Feedlot Centre, a  federally-funded project to reduce the country’s beef imports by 40 percent.

Among the accusations made by the opposition was that a huge chunk of the RM250 million government soft loan had allegedly been abused to benefit Shahrizat and her family.

The fallout of the claims was that Shahrizat was forced to let go of her post as the Women, Family and Community Development Minister.

NFC chairperson Mohamad Salleh Ismail, who is Shahrizat’s husband, was charged at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court with two counts of criminal breach of trust and another two counts of violating the Companies Act 1965, last month, over the purported abuses.