KUALA LUMPUR: The government is negotiating with license holder MySJ Sdn Bhd (MySJ) on the subscription terms of the MySejahtera application.
While the discussions have yet to conclude, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin gave his assurance that the government remains the sole custodian of the MySejahtera application data.
He stressed that the application was safe to be used for various public health purposes from check-ins, vaccination certifications and travellers' information.
Khairy said the data was being kept secured by the government under the National Security Council, National Cyber Security Agency and Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit.
"We have not concluded the negotiation with MySJ. The government maintains that as far as MySejahtera is concerned, the app and also the data in it is owned by the government. That is the basis of our negotiation with MySJ.
"Now we are in the process of discussion with MySJ on the way forward, as far as the maintenance of the platform is concerned.
"I have informed the vendor (MySJ) that if they do not reach a fair agreement with the government, we can choose another vendor.
"I can tell you for a fact that the amount that we are negotiating with MySJ is much... much lower than RM300 million, far lower.
"So, if they do not agree that the MySejahtera app is owned by the government, except maybe certain platforms that need their source code, then we won't go ahead with the agreement.
"The court case between Entomo (previously KPISoft Sdn Bhd) and MySJ, that is something for them to resolve, nothing to do with the government.
"The amount they (MySJ) have agreed to with Entomo has nothing to do with the government's negotiations," said Khairy, referring to reports citing court documents that the MySejahtera app would be sold by Entomo to MySJ for RM338.6 million.
Khairy said this after launching a book titled, "Systems Thinking Analyses for Health Systems Policy and Systems Development: A Malaysian Case Study" at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre today.
He said the MySejahtera application was developed at the start of the pandemic back in 2020 by the then KPISoft Sdn Bhd, which is now known as Entomo, as part of their one-year corporate social responsibility (CSR) effort for free.
When he assumed the ministership, Khairy said he decided to regularise the MySejahtera application and the need for a contract to be signed jointly between the government and the company managing the platform.
"We need to regularise their services. They cannot be doing CSR forever.
(What if they) suddenly asked us to pay? Now that the CSR period ended in March last year, I told the cabinet that we needed to be transparent as we are still using the MySejahtera app.
"From time to time, I ask them to add features to the app. If there is no contract it will be difficult. For the sake of governance, I have asked for the negotiations to take place.
"And that is why it came up in the Public Accounts Committee. There is nothing to hide. We are still negotiating and of course, once it is done, we will inform what the basis of the contract is," he said.
MySejahtera is a mobile application developed to facilitate contact tracing efforts in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia.
The main goal is quick identification of persons who may have come into close contact with anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19.