Dewan Rakyat tolak usul bincang skandal NFC...

Speaker Dewan Rakyat Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia hari ini menolak usul bagi membincangkan kontroversi National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) atas alasan ia kini menjadi kes mahkamah.

Usul itu difailkan oleh Zuraida Kamaruddin (PKR-Ampang), di bawah Perintah Tetap 18 (1) Jumaat lalu.

Alasan yang diberikan adalah bahawa pengerusi eksekutif NFC Datuk Seri Mohamad Salleh Ismail telah dihadapkan ke Mahkamah Sesyen Kuala Lumpur, semalam, atas empat tuduhan berasingan melakukan pecah amanah membabitkan RM49.7 juta dan menggunakan harta syarikat itu tanpa kebenaran mesyuarat agung, tiga tahun lalu.

"Tetapi usul yang saya hendak bentangkan, tidak ada apa-apa kaitan dengan Salleh. Saya hanya ingin tahu mengenai peranan Kementerian Pertanian dan Industri Asas Tani dan Kementerian Kewangan berhubung perkara itu.

"Wakil-wakil daripada kementerian berkenaan menduduki lembaga pengarah syarikat (tetapi) hampir semua (wang yang dipnjamkan oleh kerajaan) digunakan untuk kegunaan peribadi. Kita mahu tahu bagaimana ini berlaku," kata Zuraida pada sidang media di lobi Parlimen, hari ini. 

Semalam, Mohamad Salleh, 64, didakwa di bawah Seksyen 409 Kanun Keseksaan kerana pecah amanah. Beliau dituduh menggunakan RM9,758,140 dana NFC untuk membeli dua unit Kondominium One Menerung, Bangsar bagi syarikat dimiliki keluarganya, National Meat & Livestock Corporation Sdn Bhd (NMLC) pada 1 dan 4 Dis, 2009.

Beliau juga menghadapi dua lagi pertuduhan mengikut Seksyen 132 Akta Syarikat kerana memindah RM40 juta dana syarikat itu kepada NMLC, dari 5 Mei hingga Nov 16, 2009.

“Perkara yang kita bangkitkan amat berbeza dan tiada kaitan dengan peletakan jawatan Menteri Wanita.

“Apa yang dipertikaikan ialah cara projek tersebut diluluskan kerana banyak persoalan yang wujud dan amat meragukan,” kata Zuraida.

Noh Omar selaku menteri bertanggungjawab sebelum ini mengaku bahawa pinjaman kepada syarikat NFC tidak dibincangkan pada kabinet sebaliknya dibincangkan di bawah Jawatankuasa Projek-projek Berimpak Tinggi sahaja.- malaysiakini

Speaker rejects debate on NFC

Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia has rejected an urgent motion to thrash out controversies surrounding the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) on grounds that the matter now rests with the court.

Zuraida Kamaruddin (left)(PKR-Ampang), who filed the motion under Standing Order 18(1) last Friday, said the reason given was that NFC chairperson Mohamad Salleh Ismail has claimed trial to two counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT) and two counts of violating the Companies Act.

"But my motion has nothing concerning Salleh. I asked about the role of the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry and the Finance Ministry in the matter," she told a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.

"Representatives of the ministries were on the company's board of directors (but) almost everything (of the RM250 million government loan) went for personal use. We want to know how this happened."

Zuraida, who is PKR women’s wing head, said she will pursue the issue and try raising questions during debate in the House.

She praised Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil for opting to relinquish her ministerial post over the controversy.

Zuriada was flanked by PAS MPs Siti Mariah Mahmud (Kota Raja), Siti Zailah Mohd Yusof (Rantau Panjang) and PAS Muslimat information chief Aiman Athirah Al-Jundi at the press conference.

"We have seen male ministers and MPs who are often at the centre of scandals, but who are not brave enough to resign ... Shahrizat's resignation is not a sacrifice but we credit her for her courage," said Siti Mariah.

Nonetheless, the MPs recommended that she should also quit as Wanita Umno head to focus on resolving the crisis into which her family has plunged because of the NFC.

In a related development, Petaling Jaya Utara DAP parliamentarian Tony Pua said the charges brought against Salleh are "far from complete".

Yesterday, Mohamad Salleh (right), had been charged under Section 409 of the Penal Code for CBT for using RM9,758,140 of NFC funds to purchase two condominium units at the One Menerung complex in Bangsar for the National Meat and Livestock Corporation (NMLC) on Dec 1 and Dec 4, 2009.

Salleh, 64, was also charged under the same section with transferring RM40 million of NFC funds to the NMLC between May 6 and Nov 16, 2009.

He further stands accused of using the funds without the approval of the NFC annual general meeting, an offence under Section 132 of the Companies Act 1965.
 

'Cast the net wider'

Pua, however, urged the Attorney-General's Chambers to book all directors who are said to be involved in other forms of abuse of the RM250 million government soft loan to the NFC.

"There are probably dozens of properties ... which were purchased with government funds, but which have been placed under the directors' names," he said.

Pua (left) was referring to opposition claims that Shahrizat's husband and children own properties in Gemas and Putrajaya and luxury condominiums in Singapore worth RM35 million.

"... it has already been made known that these directors also own in their personal capacity, other companies such as the NMLC, Real Food Company and Meatworks Corporation Sdn Bhd, which have yet to submit annual returns with audited accounts since 2007,” he said.

"The failure to submit annual returns and other relevant documents to the Registrar of Companies is a gross breach of the Companies Act and is liable to five years’ jail and/or RM30,000 fine.”

The act of transferring the purchases to their names was "even more serious" as it can be considered a crime under CBT, he said.
Pua also said Wan Shahinur Izran’s (left) disposal of assets in Straits Beverages Pte Ltd "to a mysterious Gold Index International Ltd", a company based in the British Virgin Islands, in December 2011, is another matter that needs to be addressed.

"This is despite the fact that funds derived from the RM250 million loan were used in setting up and operating the company. Such disposal of assets would be a clear breach of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001.”

Yesterday, Umno’s Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan had said the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) may reconsider its probe into NFC as the matter is before the court. Pua, a member of the  PAC, objected to this, saying the probe revolves around the role of the ministries that had awarded the project and granted the loan to the NFC.- malaysiakini

What’s so prejudicial discussing the NFC scandal?

Firstly, thank you Zuraida Kamaruddin of PKR. If you had not applied for a motion to discuss the NFC scandal in Parliament, Shahrizat Jalil would not have been forced to resign from Cabinet and her husband would not have been charged with CBT. 

That one move by the PKR MP spooked Putrajaya into acting because they knew that the alternative was untenable: having an open debate in a Parliament on the role played by the then Agriculture Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Abdullah Badawi in approving the RM250 million project and soft loan.

Whatever the Opposition MPs would have said in Parliament would have been covered by privilege and one can only surmise what they would have disclosed.

But Zuraida’s motion sent Putrajaya into overdrive to find out a way in which the NFC could be kept out of Parliament. The best manner was to argue that the case was in the courts and any discussion would be sub judice.

But there is one major flaw with those in Malaysia who hide behind the concept of sub judice. It is meant for jury trials so that the 12 ordinary citizens will not be influenced by what is reported about a case in the public domain.

But as the eminent English judge Lord Denning once noted, if a professional judge is influenced by the chatter around him then he has no business being a judge.

In short, the Dewan Rakyat Speaker’s decision to disallow the debate on how RM250 million project was awarded and the main characters involved on the grounds of sub judice is rubbish. 

It is a self-serving move by the Speaker to protect his coalition from more searching questions on the scandal of the year.

It is the act of a government that appears anxious to put an artificial closure on this scandal. - Justice Seeker, Malaysian Insider.

cheers.