‘I suffered losses, not the government’

NFCorp executive chairman claims company failed because beef production project suspended

KUALA LUMPUR: National Feedlot Corp Sdn Bhd (NFCorp) executive chairman Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail told the High Court yesterday that he and his company suffered losses due to the failure of the National Feedlot Centre project in Gemas, Negri Sembilan, not the government.

Mohamad Salleh, 74, said this was because the money from NFCorp was seized and the government suspended the project, Bernama reported.

“I suffered losses, not you (the government). You froze and seized the money and suspended the project. You did not build the abattoir.

“I had spent all my time to make the project a success. But after you seized the money, the project could not proceed,” Mohamad Salleh said, adding that because of the losses incurred, he filed a counterclaim of RM86 million against the government.

Mohamad Salleh was being crossexamined by senior federal counsel Asliza Ali, who is representing the government, at the hearing of the government’s suit against NFCorp to recover RM253.6 million in loan repayments and interest from the company over the National Feedlot Centre project in Gemas.

Asliza: I put it to you that your contention on the losses of NFCorp is an allegation and not proven and supported by the documents represented in court.

Mohamad Salleh: It is not correct. We have all the evidence.

Mohamad Salleh, who is the husband of former Women, Family and Community Development minister Tan Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, denied that the company did not achieve the production target of 6,000 cattle slaughtered in 2010, according to the AuditorGeneral’s report.

“The company managed to bring in more than 8,000 heads of cattle from Darwin, Australia. However, the company did not meet the target of the cattle production since we did not have enough abattoirs to slaughter the cattle,” he said.

Mohamad Salleh, who is the second defendant, said out of the number (8,000), a total of 5,743 cattle were slaughtered from 2008 until the end of 2010 at the mini abattoir built by the company as the government did not provide such a facility.

“Based on the production target, we needed to slaughter 700 cattle a day, but the mini abattoir we built could only reach a rate of 30 cattle per day.

“No matter how many cattle we brought in, we still could not meet the target due to the lack of abattoirs.”

In its suit, the government named NFCorp as the first defendant, while Mohamad Salleh and their three children, Wan Shahinur Izran, Wan Shahinur Izmir and Wan Izzana Fatimah Zabedah, as the second to fifth defendants.

The other defendants are the six companies controlled by Mohamad Salleh’s family, namely, National Meat and Livestock Corp Sdn Bhd, Real Food Corp Sdn Bhd, Meatworks Corp Sdn Bhd, Agroscience Industries Sdn Bhd, Asian Bioscience Corp Sdn Bhd and Technology Imageware (M) Sdn Bhd.

The government claimed it had signed a loan agreement for RM250 million with NFCorp on Dec 6, 2007, to finance the National Feedlot Centre in Gemas as part of an initiative to boost beef production.

The loan was disbursed in three tranches and Mohamad Salleh’s family was claimed to have made 10 withdrawals amounting to RM18.51 million from Jan 24, 2008 to Jan 3, 2011.