Auditor-General Ambrin Buang's clarification on the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) project has proven that the project has not failed, Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Noh Omar says.

NONE"This is due to the National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd (NFCorp) project achieving its Key Performance Index of producing more than 8,000 heads of cattle over the three-year period since 2008.

The Auditor-General's clarification on the NFC project is the same as the lengthy explanation I gave in Parliament earlier," Noh said after distributing the 1Malaysia People's Aid (BR1M) to eligible recipients in Bukit Belimbing, Kuala Selangor, today.

He was commenting on the National Audit Department's (NAD) clarification yesterday that the Auditor-General's Report 2010 did not mention words such as "chaotic", "in a mess" or "misappropriation" on the project in Gemas, Negri Sembilan.

Ambrin (above, right) said in a statement that "these words were used by other parties and the NAD should not be held accountable".

Ambrin went on to say that in NAD's opinion, it was up to the authorities such as the police and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to investigate if there were elements of misappropriation in the implementation of the project.

Several weaknesses in implementation

From an audit perspective, there were several weaknesses in the implementation of the project which caused the government to postpone it to May 2009, before the audit, pending a projection and business model done, he said.

NONECommenting further, Noh (left) admitted there was a delay in the project, during the clearing of the 5,000-hectare site in Negri Sembilan comprising 1,500ha to NFCorp, 500ha to another company and the rest of the land to the state government.

He said the opposition was clearly confused when it said the government had loaned RM250 million to the company before an agreement was signed.

"This is because there were two agreements with NFCorp, the first on Dec 6, 2007, with the Finance Ministry involving the RM250 million loan, and the second with the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry signed on March 8, 2010, when I was the minister.

"So, there was no way the loan would have been disbursed before the agreement was signed. The opposition wase twisting the facts, saying the agreement was made in 2010 but didn't mention the one signed in 2007."

He said if there was any misappropriation in the project implementation, the ministry would leave it to the MACC to investigate.

"The project is not a failure. The ministry just has to reorganise it so that it is implemented in accordance with the terms of the agreement," he added.

- Bernama