The government will not be paying anything close to the RM338.6 million for the MySejahtera app software licence that MySJ Sdn Bhd had reportedly paid the app developer Entomo Malaysia Sdn Bhd to acquire the licence previously.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin (above) said the government is currently still negotiating with MySJ Sdn Bhd on the software licence agreement terms but assured that the price will be “far lower” than RM338.6 million.
“I can tell you for a fact that the amount that we are negotiating with MySJ is much, much lower than RM300 million. Far lower.
“The court case between Entomo and MySJ, that’s something for them to resolve, nothing to do with the government.
“The amount they (MySJ) have agreed to with Entomo (previously KPISoft Sdn Bhd) has nothing to do with the government’s negotiations,” Khairy said to reporters today.
He was speaking to reporters after giving the keynote speech at the United Nations University-International Institute for Global Health launch for the book titled ‘Malaysian Health Care: Building for Future Excellence, Equity and Resilience’ at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre today.
No payment yet
He also added that the government has not paid any of these private companies anything yet.
Khairy explained that there had been no contract between the government and MySejahtera developer Entomo when he first became the health minister as the company had offered to develop and maintain the services of the app as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR).
As such, Khairy decided to “regularise” the agreement by entering into a formal contract with the developer, in order to prevent any surprise charges in the future when the government wants to add more modules to the app.
However, the government was later informed that Entomo had sold the licence for the MySejahtera app to MySJ Sdn Bhd.
Hence, the government is currently in the midst of negotiations with MySJ for the subscription terms of the MySejahtera app, Khairy said.
“Currently, the government is in the process of discussing with MySJ about the way forward, the maintenance of the platform.
“If they do not agree for MySejahtera to be owned by the government, except maybe certain platforms that require their source code and so on, then we will not continue with the agreement. That is why I said we are still under negotiations,” he said.
He stressed that the negotiations with the private company are only for the software as a service (SaaS) of the MySejahtera app. SaaS is a software licensing and delivery model where the software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted on the internet.
Data safe, no permission given
He insisted that the private data from the MySejahtera app has always been owned and safeguarded by the government, specifically under the National Cyber Security Agency (Nacsa) and the National Security Council (NSC), through a non-disclosure agreement with the private companies.
The private companies were only brought on to maintain the services of the app, he said.
“The data is safe because all the data is under the Health Ministry’s regulation. We did not give permission to anyone.
“The data has not been shared with the private sector. All of it has only been used for public health purposes by the Health Ministry only,” Khairy said.
Once the negotiations for the contract between the government and MySJ have concluded, Khairy assured that the public will be informed about the basis of the contract.
If the negotiations fall through, Khairy said it is not impossible for them to choose another vendor besides MySJ as the relevant data is still being safeguarded by the government.
It was previously revealed via court documents that Entomo, the MySejahtera app developer, had agreed to transfer the intellectual property and the software license of the app to MySJ in an RM338.6 million deal that will last until the end of 2025.
This had led to concerns about the sale of the MySejahtera app to the private sector which critics say could lead to a national security threat and the violation of people’s private information.
Khairy has since clarified that the government’s decision to appoint a firm to manage the MySejahtera application was not a case of selling it off and that the data is safe with the ministry. - Mkini
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