The Malaysian company gives a point-by-point denial of the Nepali Times report, which it describes as entirely false.
Nepali Times has alleged that a scam milked RM185 million from migrant workers seeking jobs in Malaysia. (Bernama pic)
PETALING JAYA: Bestinet Sdn Bhd today denied allegations that it is involved in a suspected scam to milk RM185 million from hundreds of thousands of Nepalis who sought work in Malaysia over the past five years.
The company said the allegations, first published by Nepali Times on June 20 under the heading “Kleptocrats of Kathmandu and Kuala Lumpur”, were entirely false.
“Bestinet is committed to conducting its business in a responsible manner and does not engage in unethical business practices,” it said in a statement.
According to the Nepali Times report, the scam involved fees for visas and biometric screening by Nepali companies affiliated with Bestinet, which developed a foreign worker system for the Immigration Department.
Media reports also linked Bestinet to former home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and several Umno politicians, and with Bangladesh middlemen who made huge profits from Bangladeshi migrant workers.
“Tallied together, the Malaysian government and companies backed by powerful politicians have taken more than Rs5 billion (RM185 million) from over 600,000 Nepali workers between September 2013 and April 2018,” the report said.
The statement said Bestinet is demanding an immediate apology, retraction and correction be issued by the Nepali Times.
“Bestinet takes these allegations very seriously and reserves the right to take all necessary steps against Nepali Times and (the report’s authors),” it said.
In its point-by-point denial of the reports, Bestinet said its founder and chairman Mohd Amin Abdul Nor is not Zahid’s brother-in-law.
Zahid’s brother, Abdul Hakim Hamidi, is also not a shareholder of the company while Azmi Khalid was never a shareholder of Bestinet and had resigned as director in January 2017.
“In fact, no one in Bestinet is related to Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi,” it said.
Earlier today, Zahid also denied any links to Bestinet and said he was ready to be investigated over the matter.
“I’m not afraid,” he said. “I’m ready to provide proof against claims that I was involved, or that I abused my power, or that my family members were involved.
“They can investigate, I’m ready to come forward. I don’t care if it’s an old or new case. I was never involved and am ready to be investigated. It’s not my company,” the Bagan Datuk MP said.
Bestinet also clarified that it is only a service provider for the bio-medical system.
It said the biometric screening mentioned in the reports is one of the modules of Bestinet’s own pioneering and award-winning Foreign Workers Centralised Management System (FWCMS), a holistic foreign workers management system developed specifically for governments.
It was recently recognised by UN-based World Summit Awards as one of the world’s 40 best digital projects that help meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Bestinet said FWCMS was first presented to the Malaysian government in 2004.
It said the government reviewed the proposal in 2011 and approved the implementation of the system under a Proof-of-Concept (POC) basis in 2012, before Zahid became the home minister.
“The system allows medical tests to be carried out and the results uploaded online in real time, including registration of workers’ demographic and biometric data.
“Workers’ attendance and eligibility verification are also done real time with the Malaysian Immigration core system.
“Bestinet would also like to highlight that the bio-medical screening is a mandatory process for all workers coming into Malaysia, and not only for workers from Nepal as alleged in the (Nepali Times) article.”
Bestinet said the module protected Malaysians from diseases that might be brought in, while at the same time looked after the welfare of foreign workers by ensuring they did not undertake the journey to Malaysia in vain if they were unfit.
It said the implementation of the bio-medical system benefits both employers and workers as, previously, about 25% to 30% of applications were rejected during attendance eligibility verification performed manually, which could take up to three months to complete.
This meant a high cost for the workers who would not be able to retrieve the money paid to the agents and medical screening, while employers lost valuable time and had to reapply to make up for the failed applications.
The manual system also left room for abuse and corruption.
Bestinet said, to date, the bio-medical module had been implemented in more than 200 medical centres across 12 labour source countries that delivered workers to Malaysia.
It said the system is fully automated and online to eliminate manual submission and ensures workers’ attendance at medical centres for screening to avoid manipulation, forged reports and corruption.
“Under the bio-medical system, workers are protected as, if their attendance eligibility verification is unsuccessful, they will be notified immediately, and they do not have to continue with the medical screening. In such cases, this service is provided free-of-charge by Bestinet,” it said.
Bestinet said there are 37 medical centres in Nepal accredited to perform the bio-medical screening.
These were identified, audited and selected based on their capabilities and medical facilities available, which allow medical results to be integrated and uploaded to the system in real time to the respective stakeholders (Malaysian embassy, Malaysian immigration and employers) as a compliance requirement before approvals are given.
Such requirements are important to ensure the medical results are examined by medical practitioners following Malaysian requirements.
Bestinet said it only collects RM100 for the bio-medical system which was approved by the Malaysian government, and other charges are collected by other service providers.
“We would like to state that ISC (Immigration Security Clearance), VLN (Visa Luar Negara), OSC (One Stop Centre) services are not provided by Bestinet and Bestinet is not related to the providers of these services and any Kathmandu-based agents.
“Hence, the allegations that Bestinet has been charging migrant workers for scanning passports, fingerprinting and uploading the data online are entirely false.
“We welcome the Malaysian government’s intent to set up a committee to conduct a thorough review into all systems and service providers related to the recruitment and management of foreign workers and we look forward to providing our full support,” the statement said. - FMT
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