PKR today revealed more alleged abuses of a RM250 million federal government soft loan to the troubled National Feedlot Corporation (NFC).
PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution ( centre in photo ) said that NFC had forked out RM31,580 for chief operating officer (CEO) Mohamad Salleh Ismail and his son, Wan Shahinur Izran’s, umrah expenses.
Saifuddin charged that funds were also channelled to two companies in which Mohamad Salleh has interests in.
Mohamad Salleh is the husband of Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil and Mohamad Salleh.
In their latest salvo, Saifuddin said PKR has solid evidence to prove the orders to pay for the haj pilgrimage in 2010 came from Mohamad Salleh's office.
"It was also used to set up Global Biofuture Pte Ltd and Meatworks Singapore Pte Ltd," he said.
In view of this, Saifuddin urged the police and Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to investigate NFC's transaction, focussing on its business activities with National Meat and Livestocks Corporation (NMLC) and Real Food Company (RFC), as well as with the two companies in Singapore.
“Global Biofuture is involved in the food and fuel business. Checks have shown that the company is in the midst of setting up a supermarket in Singapore and suspected of importing cattle from overseas through Singapore to be supplied to NFC.
“Our checks have revealed that as of June 2010, Global Biofuture owes RFC RM939,495,” the Machang MP told reporters at the Parliament lobby.
Another similar enterprise is Meatworks Singapore Pte Ltd, which handle the federal minister’s family-owned line of luxury restaurants in the island nation, he added.
According to Saifuddin, financial statements as of June 2010 showed that Meatworks is also indebted by RM2,416,815 to RFC.
He insisted that PKR has reason to believe that funds from the government’s RM250 million loan were used to form the Singaporean firms.
“These preliminary evidences are enough to began a detailed probe to investigate if there are elements of corruption. When the rakyat’s money, allocated for high-impact projects, is used for personal purposes,” he said.
NFC became embroiled in controversy after PKR alleged it mis-spent the RM181 million government out of the RM250 million loan granted for the project.
Earlier, the party’s strategy director Rafizi Ramli had revealed that the loan was used by NFC to purchase luxurious condominiums and an expensive overseas trip, on top of linking Umno leaders whom he claimed had benefitted from the company.
He further claimed that NFC paid RM26,400 for Shahrizat’s expenses.
However, in a press conference last week, Mohamad Salleh denied any wrongdoing and justified the condominium purchases, among others, as a sound investment.