KUALA LUMPUR: The government awarded the contract to develop the MySejahtera application to Entomo Malaysia Sdn Bhd (formerly known as KPISoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd) in March 2020 without going through the right procurement procedures, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) revealed today.
PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh said no supporting documents or minutes were available to prove Entomo's appointment as the application's developer, except for a non-disclosure agreement signed between the National Security Council (NSC) and the company.
The corporate social responsibility (CSR) concept proposed by Entomo also left the government confused on the company's appointment as the application developer, the duration of the CSR concept, and the ownership status of MySejahtera.
"The CSR concept (proposed by Entomo) has been used as a mechanism to secure a government project without having to go through the necessary procurement procedures.
"There are no documents stating that the CSR initiative (for the MySejahtera app) was only for a year.
"It appears as though the government was stuck with no other options but to appoint MySJ Sdn. Bhd. (as the license holder) through direct negotiations.
"The development and the continuous use of MySejahtera should have remained a CSR initiative," he said, after the PAC released its report on MySejahtera today.
While the PAC lauded the government for rejecting Entomo's proposal to commercialise MySejahtera, it also raised questions on the government's assurance that data privacy of users will not fall into the wrong hands.
This, it said, was because the government has yet to get the intellectual property (IP) rights registered for MySejahtera, as of April 2022, and Entomo has previously staked a claim that the company owned the applications's IP rights.
It also said the RM196 million ceiling price set by the Finance Ministry to procure the MySejahtera application for two years was expensive and went against the CSR concept.
Therefore, the PAC called on the government to fully take over the MySejahtera application through the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu) that has the right expertise and capabilities to manage the application.
On Sept 21, 2021, through a reply in the Dewan Rakyat, the government stated that the MySejahtera app started as a CSR project but the one-year CSR period had expired on March 31 last year.
Following that, the government paid for the use of the MySejahtera app from April 1, 2021.
However, on Nov 26, 2021, the Cabinet agreed to procure the application through a direct negotiation with the developer for a period of two years.
On April 2022, the Cabinet agreed to fully take over the MySejahtera application and transfer the application's data to Mampu's data centre.
The PAC subsequently conducted two proceedings on the development and procurement of MySejahtera on April 14 and April 21 and summoned eight witnesses to provide explanation on the matter.
These witnesses included Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz and NSC director-general Datuk Rodzi Md Saad, among others.
Besides urging the government to fully take over MySejahtera, the PAC also advised the government to take more prudent measures while making procurements.
"All CSR offers are certainly welcomed. However, the terms of these offers must be spelt out clearly and CSR should not be used as an alternative route to (award projects) through direct negotiations.
"The government should establish a guideline to manage and process CSR offers.
"The government should also continue its efforts to make the MySejahtera a public health management tool, in line with plans to digitalise the country's healthcare services," it said.