Nurul Izzah: Why common chairperson for health, petrol subsidy programmes?

PARLIAMENT | Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar today expressed concern that the government's health and petrol subsidy programmes are being managed by companies that have a common chairperson.

Debating the Budget 2020 at the committee stage in the Dewan Rakyat today, she questioned the method of channelling the petrol subsidies to the M40 group using the "Kad95" method.

"I wish to raise a question on the RM25.05 million contract on 'Kad95' given to GHL Systems Bhd as reported by The Edge Market," Nurul Izzah said.

"Why has the government not only chosen (this company) but I also learned its chairperson and this Great Eastern Takaful Bhd's (chairperson) is the same person.

"So I hope the ministry can explain. We don't want a certain control in the distribution of subsidies, including the programme run by the Health Ministry," she said.

Nor Azrina Surip (Harapan-Merbok) then stood up and questioned if this could lead to a monopoly.

Nurul Izzah said, "Yes, I hope the question can be answered."

"When we focus on reducing costs and channelling the subsidy to a targeted group, we don't want a see a mechanism that appears to increase bureaucracy and Great Eastern is seen to be exempted from rules imposed on other insurance companies," she said.

Nurul Izzah did not name names but appeared to be referring to GHL Systems Sdn Bhd chairperson Kamaruddin Taib, who is also the chairperson of Great Eastern Takaful Berhad that manages the Health Ministry's MySalam insurance scheme.

MySalam is a free insurance scheme provided by the government that offers a one-off RM8,000 payout to low-income recipients who are stricken with a critical illness.

For clarity, the MySalam scheme, unlike the petrol subsidy scheme, was not granted to any company in the form of a contract.

Foreign-owned insurance companies were invited to channel funds into the MySalam scheme as an alternative to Bank Negara Malaysia's requirement for them to divest 30 percent of their shareholdings to local entities.

Great Eastern is the only company that has taken up the offer.

GHL Systems was in March granted the RM25 million contract to build a system to allow targeted petrol subsidies using a card verification system.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng expects the targeted petrol subsidy programme for the B40 group (those with a median household income of RM6,725) to be ready by next March.

In his winding-up later of the debate at the committee stage, Deputy Finance Minister Amiruddin Hamzah clarified that both the "Kad95" and MySalam schemes were two different programmes not related to one another.

"Coincidentally, their (GHL's and Great Eastern Takaful's) chairpersons are the same man," he said.

He said the "Kad95" contract was awarded after the government called for a "request for proposal" (RFP) and it was not awarded via an open tender process.

"An RFP means that we did not restrict anyone who feels they have the expertise from participating," he said.

"We did not go to the proof of concept (POC) stage as we were in a little bit of a rush and we need to implement it in the second half of 2019," he said.

However, the government had ensured that the system it obtained was stable and workable.

Nurul Izzah had also questioned the card system under the "Kad95" contract, saying the best-proven system known was direct payments to the targetted consumers. - Mkini