PAC probe into MySejahtera proves govt erred, says Anwar

 

Anwar Ibrahim claims those linked to politicians have benefited from the development of the MySejahtera mobile app.

PETALING JAYA: The Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) investigation into the MySejahtera mobile application proves that the government erred in “remaining transparent and securing ownership” of the app’s development, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said today.

In a statement, the PKR president also alleged that the app’s development had benefited those linked to politicians. However, he did not elaborate on his claim.

“Grave concerns my colleagues and I had previously raised in Parliament were emboldened last week with the PAC chairman noting continued confusion and uncertainty regarding the health minister’s assurances over the development of the MySejahtera app, particularly as to how secure the data collected from the app has been during the last two years,” Anwar said.

“Most troubling is the high potential for data leakage. This makes our information available to foreign-owned entities.

“It is of the utmost importance that the government proves to the people that our data has, and continues to be, secure on government servers only.”

PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh last week told The Edge that Putrajaya seemed to be “confused” as to who appointed KPISoft Sdn Bhd as the vendor for the app.

He added that there had been no formal contract between the government and KPISoft “since Day 1” – except for a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) between the National Security Council (MKN) and the firm on data collection.

Following the PAC’s proceedings on the development and procurement of MySejahtera on April 21, Wong stated that Putrajaya should have finalised the terms of its contract from the start, rather than negotiate the price with the vendor now.

He added that the procurement process was not handled well because under normal circumstances, the government would have had direct negotiations with the vendor, after an open tender or a limited tender process.

Apart from calling up health minister Khairy Jamaluddin and finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz, the PAC also interviewed representatives from MKN, the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu), and the National Cyber Security Agency.

Today, Anwar called for the PAC to summon the private entities involved in the development of the app and data management, and also get relevant technical experts, to help track down the exact servers where MySejahtera data was stored.

“The collection of data by any organisation or government without an expressly stated objective leaves the said data highly vulnerable to abuse and represents a clear and dangerous dereliction of duty on the part of the collectors,” he said.

“The health ministry must be upfront and fully transparent on this, including allowing for a full audit with data forensics.” - FMT