KUALA LUMPUR (April 14): The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will call up three agencies under the Prime Minister’s Department next Thursday (April 21) to provide explanations on the development and procurement of MySejahtera, its chairman Wong Kah Woh said.
“The PAC is of the opinion that there is a need to call other witnesses to provide further statements for this proceeding.
“The PAC will call in three agencies under the Prime Minister’s Department, namely the National Security Council (MKN), the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU), and the National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA) on April 21, Thursday to attend [the proceedings] and provide statement and explanation on this issue,” Wong said in a statement.
Wong also said the PAC’s proceedings on Thursday (April 14) focused on five matters, including the contract award for the development of the MySejahtera app to KPISoft Sdn Bhd in April 2020.
The proceedings also focused on the direct award of contract to MySJ Sdn Bhd — the current operator of the app — by the government in November 2021, and the status of the government’s negotiation with the company.
Further, PAC also addressed the ownership of the MySejahtera app, including application module, source code, intellectual property and database, as well as the government’s commitment to protect the public’s personal data in the app.
Lastly, the PAC also zoomed into the companies involved in the MySJ shareholder dispute in court.
“The proceeding is held through the powers of the PAC under the Standing Order 77(1)d and 77(5) in the Standing Orders of the Dewan Rakyat, as well as Section III, Article 11(b), General Circular No 2 (1982),” the statement added.
PAC’s proceedings on April 14 saw the attendance of Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and Treasury Secretary-General Datuk Asri Hamidin @ Hamidon.
During the nearly three-hour meeting, Tengku Zafrul presented in the first hour, followed by Khairy and Asri who took over as Tengku Zafrul had to leave for another appointment. Khairy later told reporters that his briefing took around two hours.
“I briefed them on everything. From day one till today (for MySejahtera).
“I was transparent, I didn’t hide anything. All documents (regarding the app) were shared with them [the PAC],” Khairy said after his briefing.
The PAC investigation was initiated as news broke that MySejahtera’s developer Entomo (M) Sdn Bhd is in a five-year licence agreement with its nominee’s subsidiary MySJ for the transfer of the MySejahtera app to the latter for a RM338.6 million price tag.
MySejahtera’s ownership also caught public attention following a shareholder dispute initiated by MySJ’s 7.03% shareholder P2 Asset Management Sdn Bhd against Revolusi Asia Sdn Bhd, Entomo Malaysia and MySJ.
Revolusi is a nominee for Entomo in holding the majority stake of 81.43% in MySJ.
The app was originally a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative by Entomo Malaysia (then known as KPISoft (M) Sdn Bhd). Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri said in September 2021 that the government will pay for the usage of MySejahtera from April 1, 2021 upon expiry of the one-year CSR period on March 31, 2021.
In December 2021, the PAC said in its ‘Report on the Procurement and Utilisation of Covid-19 Vaccines by Malaysians’ that the government should not be paying for the use of MySejahtera as it was developed as a CSR initiative.
“The PAC is of the view that the CSR concept has been used as a mechanism to secure government projects without undergoing the procurement due process,” the committee said.
“The government should not be making any payment for the MySejahtera app as the usage is CSR in nature.
“The government must take over operations of the MySejahtera app without incurring any additional costs as it is part of the national healthcare system,” it added.