KUALA LUMPUR: Private information technology company Bestinet Sdn Bhd said it had yet to obtain any contract from the government to implement the controversial Foreign Worker Centralised Management System (FWCMS).

“We don’t have a contract yet,” Bestinet executive chairman Tan Sri Azmi Khalid told a press conference here yesterday.

“I’m not comfortable with the lack of [a] contract, but the government wants proof of concept. The officers want to know the way to implement the system,” said Azmi, who is also former home minister.

“I hope one day we can get the contract,” he added, noting that it is up to the government to decide how much to pay the company for the system.

The immigration department on Jan 26 suspended the FWCMS and biometric health checks, which were outsourced to Bestinet that had come under the spotlight because of its directors who were closely linked to Putrajaya. The suspension came just two weeks after the two modules came into effect.

Azmi said he hopes the government will lift the suspension soon.

He added that other countries are impressed with the system, and are looking at its implementation in Malaysia, and if all things fail here, the company could go overseas.

Azmi also claimed that the end-to-end system would help the government save a “huge sum of costs” in maintaining the detention centre for illegal foreign workers and healthcare costs for treating the foreign workers in the country and repatriate them.

The patent-registered system could also protect the workers from being abused by employment agency operators, while employers could get their workers in a short period, as short as three days.

Additionally, it would make sure all the data in the system is protected.

Azmi explained that Bestinet had presented its proposal to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in 2011 to develop a holistic system that would plug the leakages in the existing foreign worker management system.

The idea was received well by Najib and his support was obtained to work with government agencies to develop the system, he added.

Azmi said the company had spent more than RM5 million developing the FWCMS.

Azmi refuted claims that the FWCMS had caused a hike in visa processing fees, reportedly from RM15 to RM250 per foreign worker for Indonesian workers.

“We are not charging,” he said, adding that Bestinet hopes to generate revenue from medical centres that use the system and carry out medical check-ups for foreign workers.

He added that medical centres could benefit from the system as it requires all workers to undergo full medical check-ups to be able to obtain approvals.

Bestinet chief executive officer Azril Rizal Abdullah blamed the visa fee hike on a single entry visa done by a third-party company appointed by the government, and had nothing to do with Bestinet.

Meanwhile, Azmi dismissed allegations of the monopoly of the FWCMS, saying it is up to the government to decide whether the system would be compulsory or run parallel with the existing system.

Azmi admitted that the company had not been filing its financial statements for the past four years as the company was still building its assets.

“To us, the business is not ongoing. So, we didn’t think it was necessary [to file financial statements with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM)], but if the SSM were to question us, we will definitely do.

“But it [not filing financial statements with SSM] is not a crime. It is in no way to cheat nor do we have any intention to cheat,” he said. Bestinet now has a paid-up capital of RM5 million.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on February 5, 2015.