A laudable project to supply beef to the domestic market has turned sour when taxpayers' money was diverted to other purposes.
No matter how much apologists may say about the National Feedlot Centre (NFC), the stark truth is that something is not right with the costly project. It was not the opposition that blew off the cover on the RM73.64 million cattle scheme and raised a stink over it. It was the Auditor-General who in his 2010 report circled a red mark over it and called the enterprise a “mess”. The opposition then followed the “trail of dung” which led all the way to a minister and a luxury condominium. The minister was furious that her family was dragged into the dung. She played innocent and tried to get the public to believe that everything was done above board. She smells a dastardly plot to destroy her political career. No, no, she will not quit. There is no reason for her to step down when even the prime minister has come to her defence. After all, the government itself is not above doing unsavoury businesses. Ministers of a feather flock together. They must protect each other’s dark deeds.
But the dirt has stuck. The dirt dug out is shocking: a project to supply beef to the domestic market has ended up supplying the meat to luxury restaurants owned by the family members of the minister. Worse still, some of the fund allocated for the project was diverted to buy a plush apartment in an upmarket area purportedly for investment. The money was also used for “overseas trips and entertainment allowance” for directors of the NFC project, who are the minister’s family members. It is plain that the ambitious goal to create Malaysia’s Beef Valley has gone astray. The taxpayers’ money that could have been used to purchase more cattle for domestic consumption had been misused for other purposes. This is a gross breach of public trust. This is a clear act of wrongdoing. This is a matter for litigation. This is a case for the graft busters – and the police – to step in and throw the book at the culprits.
It is strange that there were no takers for the project when it was first mooted. The “meat” was eventually given on a platter to the minister whose family members ran the show. It turned out to be a dismal performance. The NFC suffered heavy losses to the tune of RM18 million in just two years (2008 and 2009) and the auditors themselves had condemned the project as no longer a “going concern” or a “viable business pursuit”. The so-called “soft loan” given to the NFC may never be recovered and the government may have to write it off altogether. It is taxpayers’ money gone down the drain. It is money that could have brought good returns had it gone to the proper people with experience in the cattle industry. Perhaps the indigenous farmers could have done a better job had they been given the project. Why give a loan to kickstart the scheme to wealthy politically-linked people? But this is the typical style of the long-entrenched governing party: dishing out juicy multi-million ringgit contracts to cronies at the expense of the taxpayers.
Signature habits
The NFC debacle is probably the tip of the cowdung. There could be many more other failed projects that have yet to come to public notice. Many ministers or their family members could be involved directly or indirectly in business ventures funded or subsidised by the government. Throw the net wider and even menteri besar or chief ministers of the Barisan Nasional-ruled states could be caught with projects that have gone bust. In at least one state, the chief minister had carved out a vast business empire through dubious practices. The NFC fiasco is one of the signature habits of the government that has been dumping public money in mega projects without heeding the rules of accountability and transaparency. It renders the sermonising on the much vaunted transformation policy meaningless and hollow. In states governed by the BN, the financial report cards are indeed bleak. Abuses of power, colossal losses in government-linked companies, deep-rooted corruption and misappropriation of funds seem to be the order of the day.
The ball is in the courts of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). The MACC must act with vigour and fearlessness against the perpetrators in government service who have misused public funds. The graft fighters need not have to wait on the sidelines anymore or only act on orders of the higher-ups or pass the baton to the police. The Auditor-General has supplied enough ammunition for the police and the MACC to launch a concerted “attack”. The NFC scandal must be dealt with expeditiously and not be allowed to fade away or be swept under the carpet. The case is not a piece of fiction created to undermine the political fortune of a back-door minister. It is a real story first revealed in the Auditor-General’s damning report. It involves public money and the people have the right to know the unvarnished truth. They do not put too much store by the arguments of those who want to put various spins on the sordid episode. The defenders, detractors and apologists can distort, deny, rebut till the cows come home – and they can never change the storyline. We have no beef with the laudable aims of the project. But public funds have been misused and that is the main grouse. And a minister has been implicated – and that stinks in the nostrils of all law-abiding citizens.
Also read:
PKR to Feedlot Minister: We’re not cows
‘Luxury condo purchased with NFC money’
Khairy: NFC condo bought as investment
