MySejahtera Debacle: Who Appointed Them?

It now seems that the Government is confronted by a major confusion as to who appointed KPISoft Sdn Bhd to develop the MySejahtera app in April 2020. There was no formal contract inked between the Government and KPISoft Sdn Bhd aside from a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) signed between the National Security Council (MKN) and KPISoft on the data collected via the app.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org

That was the essence of what was expressed by Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman to the media. The PAC called in representatives from 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. Both the Health and Finance Ministers were called in to testify on the same issue.

The procurement process was not handled well. Because in normal circumstances, the Government will either have direct negotiations with the vendor or have an open tender or a limited tender. The big confusion is ‘who made the appointment and what was the justification’.

Why pay the developer for MySejahtera when in fact, the initiative started as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) exercise.

The issue of intellectual property rights (of MySejahtera app) as claimed by MySJ Sdn Bhd is supported by the sale of shares and licensing agreement at a sum of over RM300 mil. The PAC investigation was sparked by revelation that MySejahtera’s developer Entomo Malaysia was 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 mil price tag.

There is still some way to go before PAC is able to furnish its final report on the MySejahtera procurement given it still needs to vet through documents and evidence.

Meanwhile, who is responsible for this debacle? The Health Minister? The Finance Minister? A civil servant? Or, none of the above. More likely in this objective test, the last answer is correct one in Malaysia. And will we learn? Not likely, the civil service and political leaders are good at repeating history! 

Reference:

MySejahtera debacle: Whatever will be, will be but not at all surprising, Cheah Chor Sooi, Focus Malaysia, 22 April 2022 (https://focusmalaysia.my)