KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 10): Although the Government had suspended the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) food project in 2009, its administrator National Feedlot Corp Sdn Bhd (NFCorp) led by chairman Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail said that they had carried on operations until 2012 because they were not informed.

Testifying in his defence at the High Court in the Government's RM250 million civil suit against NFCorp, himself and nine others, Salleh said the Government had never given him or the company formal notice in 2009 that it had pulled the plug on the project.

He testified that the feedlot centre in Gemas, Negeri Sembilan, was in operation until 2012 when the Government had frozen the company's accounts.

“The project was suspended by the Government in May 2009, but we were not informed, the project was still in operation in 2012,” he said before judge Anand Ponnudurai at the High Court here on Thursday (Nov 10).

During the trial, Salleh had reiterated that the RM253.6 million loan was unable to be repaid as the Government did not provide the necessary infrastructure for the NFC project, such as failure to build the Export Quality Abattoir (EQA) to enable NFCorp to commence full production.

However, it is the Government’s contention that it did not need to build the EQA because NFCorp did not adhere to the company's agreement between with the Government to achieve full production.

Salleh further testified on Thursday that the food project was still viable despite being terminated by the Government.

He said the implementation agreement that was signed between NFCorp and the Government has not been terminated.

He also added that had the Government adhered to the implementation agreement to build the EQA, which was able to slaughter 700 cows per day, for NFC, the project would have been successful.

Salleh claimed that if the EQA had been built, he would have been able to repay the loan.

“Had the government executed Schedule 8 (of the agreement), the project could take off,” he said.

He said food is a “national security issue” and this project would be beneficial as agriculture and food are important.

Anand then asked why NFCorp could not build the EQA if the Government had failed to do so, to which Salleh responded that the EQA was expensive and he did not have the funds.

“EQA will cost RM60 million to build and we didn’t have the money. The Government promised to build it,” he said.

He also claimed that he was out of pocket RM3.7 million as he had to build a mini abattoir on the Gemas feedlot centre which was only capable of slaughtering 30 cows per day, way below the intended output of 700 cows per day.

Salleh was subject to re-examination from his lawyer Datuk K Kirubakaran.

The Government filed the lawsuit against NFCorp and its chairman Salleh in May 2019 to recover the loan.

Salleh is the husband of former Wanita Umno chief Tan Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who was also formerly the minister of women, family and community development.

Also named as defendants in the suit are the couple's three children and seven companies owned by the family, including NFCorp.

They were accused of misappropriating and wrongly using RM118 million out of the RM250 million loan.

The Government is also seeking a declaration from the court to have Salleh's family personally liable for the debt repayment, the RM118 million allegedly misappropriated from the loan and secret profits arising from it, as well as Putrajaya's entitlement to claim equitable title to the properties bought by the defendants using the misappropriated sum.

The case had been on hold since 2021 as parties were negotiating an out-of-court settlement.

Salleh was slated to take the stand in his defence in January this year, when both sides asked for an adjournment pending the settlement.

Hearing of the lawsuit will resume on March 15 next year.

Senior federal counsels Nurhafizza Azizan and Asliza Ali represented the Government, who is the plaintiff.