Probe Selangor's ‘Program Insan’ for FSA violation, Bersatu urges

 

The Selangor government and its ‘Program Insan’ insurance scheme should be investigated for violations under the Financial Services Act 2013 (FSA), according to Bersatu.

The party’s Legal and Constitutional Bureau deputy chairperson Sasha Lyna Abdul Latif said the law, which governs insurance matters, requires a person’s informed consent to enter an insurance contract.

“Since the policy had already been issued to all the voters of Selangor without their knowledge, all the pre-contractual disclosures were not adhered to, and it was also done without any offer or acceptance of the insurance contract.

“The insurance scheme was never announced, and the policyholders were never given the option to be offered the insurance scheme let alone accept the offer.

“In short, a whole series of criminal acts in breach of FSA have been committed. This is shocking, as it is a Selangor government initiative,” Sasha Lyna (above, left) said in a statement today.

She pointed out that under the FSA, before an insurance scheme is offered, the law requires the person offering the insurance to disclose details such as the name of a licenced insurer, the relationship between the insurer and the person offering the insurance, the conditions of the policy, and the amount payable to the person and as a premium to the insurer.

Failure to disclose this may be punishable with up to five years imprisonment, a fine of up to RM10 million, or both, upon conviction.

Personal data

Further, the FSA stipulates that no insurer or insurance broker shall induce a person to enter an insurance contract through false or misleading statements, or by concealing a material fact.

“Thus, the FSA 2013 is very clear that the person who enters into an insurance contract must know and accept the contract as well as the identity of the insurance company,” she said.

Previously, several Selangor residents have claimed to have been registered for the state-backed free insurance scheme without their knowledge, and their insurance information can be viewed by anyone who has their IC number.

However, the state’s Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari clarified that the state government had only worked with the Election Commission to pre-register Selangor residents for the programme, using information from the electoral roll.

They will still have to go through a set of procedures to activate the policy.

“If you are not interested, you do not have to activate it,” he told a press conference on Wednesday, adding that security measures will be tightened to protect personal information.

However, Sasha Lyna questioned the government’s assertions that it retains custody of the data and ensures the data would not be shared with the operator Wavpay Fintech Holding Sdn Bhd’s other projects such as its e-wallet service.

She also claimed that the ‘Program Insan’ website was changed only two days ago to inform users who are eligible for the insurance scheme to either register themselves at a state assemblyperson’s office or through Wavpay’s website.

“This was clearly an afterthought after its website and system jammed when people tried to check whether they were a victim of this scandal,” she said. - Mkini