Omnibus Act to be passed in ‘record’ one year, says Rafizi

 

Economy minister Rafizi Ramli said the Omnibus Act will allow various government agencies to share data. (Bernama pic)

PUTRAJAYA: The pressing need to roll out targeted subsidies through the newly launched Central Database Hub, or Padu, means the government cannot wait “three or four years” to pass the Omnibus Act, says economy minister Rafizi Ramli.

The Omnibus Act, which will allow data sharing and cloud storage among government agencies, is necessary as the government’s various databases are subject to different Acts — which do not allow them to share data.

Rafizi said since it would be too tedious to amend dozens of Acts to allow individual government agencies to share data, these agencies have signed temporary agreements to enable data sharing in view of Padu’s launch.

Launched on Tuesday, Padu is a comprehensive database that is meant to accurately gauge the population’s socioeconomic status in order to disburse targeted subsidies, which is one of the government’s main targets for this year.

“Previous administrations needed three to four years to pass laws.

“We are trying to set a record by enacting this law (Omnibus Act) in just one year,” he told a press conference here.

“The Omnibus Act will allow the various departments to share data. It’s not meant to protect data as that is already covered under the various Acts (governing public agencies).”

In his opening speech during Padu’s launch on Tuesday, economy secretary-general Nor Azmie Diron noted that some of the country’s existing databases operate in silos and are non-interoperable.

In a Bernama report, he said this situation complicated the sharing and integration of data and caused the Padu data coordination process to take a long time.

Nor Azmie said among the agencies at the federal level that have agreed to share their databases, as part of Padu’s rollout, include the national registration department, the Inland Revenue Board and Tenaga Nasional Bhd. - FMT