Holidays, land, a Merc, and now a 'clean bill' for Shahrizat

Harakahdaily

Dec 1: Amid fresh allegations that public funds were used to buy a Mercedes-Benz, land and disbursement of some RM600,000 to family members of Shahrizat Jalil, the police has let off the embattled Wanita UMNO head, saying there is no criminal breach of trust involving the National Feedlot Corporation owned by her family. This came as Shahrizat, addressing the UMNO general assembly, launched a vitriolic attack on PKR leaders such as her counterpart Zuraida Kamaruddin, secretary general Saifuddin Nasution and spokesman Rafizi Ramli, who had been exposing to the media shocking details of financial mismanagement at NFC. "You think we are afraid of you?" asked a visibly angry Shahrizat. "She (Zuraida) wants me to resign. Who are you to order me?” Her speech was however met with even more revelations on the cattle farming project, which was first criticised by the Auditor General for failing to achieve its objectives despite getting some RM200 million from the government. In the latest revelations, Rafizi said the company had been making payments to a tour agency Impian Global Network Services, and called on Shahrizat to explain details of the holiday trips. He also alleged that a RM534,622 Mercedes-Benz was bought using NFC’s funds channelled through National Meat and Livestock Corporation (NMLC) and a sum of RM588,585 was transferred to Meatworks, both companies in Singapore owned by Shahrizat’s family. “All these have nothing to do with NFC’s business plan,” stressed Rafizi. 'Whitewash' Meanwhile, in an immediate reaction, PKR vice president N Surendran accused the police of 'whitewashing' wrongdoings by NFC and Shahrizat. "This is a transparent attempt by the national police leadership to perform 'damage control' on behalf of the ruling UMNO party. Why issue such a statement when investigations are still continiuing? It makes no sense for the police to state their conclusions before the end of the investigation," he said in a statement to Harakahdaily. Surendran questioned the timing of the police's statement to coincide with the UMNO general assembly, and asked how the police could come to such a conclusion when it had yet to record any statement from Shahrizat. "The police whitewash of NFC is all the more shocking considering the scale of mismanagement and abuse of public funds that has thus far been exposed. "It seems (deputy inspector general of police) Khalid Abu Bakar expects the public to believe that there is no criminal wrongdoing by any person, despite public funds being used to purchase luxury condos, overseas trips, luxury cars and prime land," said Surendran.