Why probe NFCorp back then, Umno leader asks MACC

Umno supreme council member Puad Zarkashi questioned why MACC investigated the National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp), amid an uproar over a Selangor project being awarded to a firm linked to Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh’s husband.

“According to the MACC boss, the minister’s husband got a contract from the Selangor government and she (Yeoh) is the youth and sports minister, so there is no connection.

“Therefore there is no need to investigate even if it is not through an open tender. It is not a conflict of interest. Ohh I see…

“The question is why was Shahrizat (Abdul Jalil) investigated in the feedlot case? In the end, the court proved that her family was the victim of slander for 12 years,” he said in a statement.

MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki reportedly said he saw no issue with the transport project awarded to Asia Mobility Technologies Sdn Bhd (Asia Mobiliti).

This is because the contract was awarded by a different entity - the Selangor government - and not by Yeoh’s ministry.

“There is no relationship between the ministry and the Selangor state government. The project that was awarded is a project from another entity," he said at an event in Kuala Lumpur today.

Earlier today, Asia Mobiliti emphasised that it is only one of two companies appointed for the project, and it was only a nine-month period.

“An open tender in this situation of a highly specialised new service and with only two qualified companies in Malaysia would have created a monopoly situation in the state.

“This would have stifled competitiveness and robbed the opportunity for the state to pilot the service in a real-world setting and assess the performance of the service providers over a reasonable period of time,” they claimed.

One of the Asia Mobiliti directors, Premesh Chandran, is also a Malaysiakini director and former CEO.

Casual dismissal

Bersatu information chief Razali Idris also drew parallels between NFCorp and Asia Mobiliti.

Razali noted that Yeoh is from DAP, as is Transport Minister Anthony Loke, who oversees the Land Public Transport Agency that approved the DRT project.

“The Selangor government is from the Pakatan Harapan bloc which has PKR and DAP,” he added.

He also asked why Azam dismissed the matter so casually.

“Common folk can also see the aspects of misgovernance, mismanagement, the possibility of misuse of power, misuse of position, misuse of connections and networking.

“All these things must be refined and examined,” he said.

In October, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that Putrajaya failed to prove any wrongful use of the RM250 million loan to NFCorp.

Case background

Civil court judge Anand Ponnudurai delivered his verdict over the federal government’s lawsuit against NFCorp and 10 other defendants, which included the company’s executive chairperson Mohamad Salleh Ismail, who is the husband of former Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat.

Anand ruled that there was no wrongful use of the loan sum and no breach of fiduciary duties by the 11 defendants, finding that the federal government breached the Implementation Agreement when the plaintiff failed to construct the Export Quality Abattoir and breached the Loan Facility Agreement by unlawfully terminating it.

Later, the government and NFCorp decided against appealing the High Court decision.

On May 31, 2019, the government filed the civil action which listed 11 defendants including six related companies, alleging that it entered into an agreement with NFCorp on Dec 6, 2007, for a RM250 million loan.

A portion of the loan was used to fund the establishment and operations of the National Feedlot Centre in Gemas, Negeri Sembilan in line with the government’s policy to develop and advance beef production and beef products.

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