Parliament must probe MySejahtera issue, says Anwar

 

Anwar Ibrahim says Khairy Jamaluddin has been vague in his explanation on the ownership of the application and the issue of personal data privacy.

PETALING JAYA: Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has called for a comprehensive investigation by Parliament to identify all matters involving the MySejahtera mobile application.

He said the issue of ownership of the application and its data is vague despite the attempts by health minister Khairy Jamaluddin to explain it.

“I now call for a comprehensive investigation by Parliament to be initiated to identify all issues involving MySejahtera in the spirit of transparency and to ensure the confidentiality of personal data is protected,” he said in a statement today.

Citing previous reports and the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM), Anwar said KPISoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd, the company that developed MySejahtera, was 100% owned by Singapore-based Entomo Pte Ltd.

He added that it was worrying when the government had involved a foreign entity without a contract for corporate social responsibility (CSR) purposes to develop and manage software that collects personal and sensitive data of Malaysians.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had recently questioned the takeover of MySejahtera by MySJ Sdn Bhd from KPISoft, now known as Entomo Malaysia.

The Cabinet had reportedly given the health ministry the green light in November to appoint MySJ to take over the app through direct negotiation.

Previously, Khairy maintained that the app still belonged to Putrajaya, with the health ministry appointed as the “main owner” of MySejahtera for the management of the nation’s public health.

Meanwhile, the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) called for a special parliamentary session and a probe by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to provide clarification on the sale of the application to a private company.

“Parliament must convene for a special session for Khairy to provide a full and satisfactory explanation, and for MPs to debate what actionable next steps can be taken to provide redress on this issue,” it said.

“MACC must also investigate and uncover any possible corruption and breach of law that led to this decision by the Cabinet,” C4 said.

It also highlighted the issues that must be resolved, including the reason behind the government’s decision to privatise the mandated public health service and the selection criteria for the procurement of MySejahtera.

“The clandestine processes that resulted in the application’s acquisition further highlights the lack of transparency in Malaysia’s business-political nexus,” the anti-graft NGO said.

Khairy has announced that he will address and explain in detail the appointment of MySJ as the licensee of the MySejahtera app in the Dewan Negara on Thursday. - FMT