PKR today revealed more alleged abuses of a RM250 million federal government soft loan to the troubled National Feedlot Corporation (NFC). 

NONE PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution ( centre in photo ) said that NFC had forked out RM31,580 for the umrah expenses of chief executive officer (CEO) Mohamad Salleh Ismail and his son, Wan Shahinur Izran.

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.

In the latest salvo, Saifuddin said PKR has solid evidence to prove that the order 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 transactions, and to focus 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 businesses. Checks have shown that the company is in the midst of setting up a supermarket in Singapore and is suspected to be 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 handles 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 set up the Singaporean firms.

“This preliminary evidence is enough to begin a detailed investigation into elements of corruption, whether the rakyat’s money, allocated for high-impact projects, is used for personal purposes,” he said.

NFC became embroiled in controversy after PKR alleged that it misused a sum of RM181 million out of the government allocation of RM250 million granted for the project.

The party’s strategy director, Rafizi Ramli, had earlier revealed that the loan was used by NFC to purchase a luxury condominium and for an expensive overseas trip, on top of linking Umno leaders whom he claimed had benefitted from the company.

Rafizi has also claimed that NFC paid RM26,400 for Shahrizat’s expenses.

However, at a press conference last week, Mohamad Salleh denied any wrongdoing and justified the purchase of two condominium units, among others, as a sound investment.