KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 – Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today urged the government not to formalise its MySejahtera contract with MySJ Sdn Bhd before the PAC tables its report on the Covid-19 app in the Dewan Rakyat in July.
PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh said the PAC will table the findings from its inquiry into the procurement and development of MySejahtera in the first week of the next Dewan Rakyat meeting that is scheduled to begin on July 18.
The PAC also urged the Speaker to allow MPs to debate its report in the Dewan Rakyat for at least one day.
“Therefore, the PAC also suggests that the government take into account the views of the PAC report that will be tabled and the debate by Members of Parliament before making a decision that involves financial implications in the issue of the development of the MySejahtera app,” Wong said in a statement today.
He said that the PAC heard testimonies from three agencies under the Prime Minister’s Department (JPM) last Thursday in its MySejahtera proceedings: the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU), the National Security Council (MKN), and the National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA).
JPM was represented by deputy secretary-general (finance and development) Sollehuddin Alyubi Zakaria and deputy secretary-general (management) Mohamad Ismail. MAMPU was represented by director-general Yusoff Ismail, MKN by director-general Rodzi Md Saad, and NACSA by chief executive Rahamzan Hashim.
Last Thursday was the second proceeding in the MySejahtera investigation after the April 14 hearing involving testimonies from Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz.
Wong said that the PAC’s proceeding with JPM, MAMPU, MKN, and NACSA discussed who was involved in appointing KPISoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd to develop the MySejahtera app in April 2020; how the private company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative for MySejahtera operated; the lack of an official contract between the government and the app developer; and the ownership of the MySejahtera app, specifically the owner of its intellectual property (IP) and the stand of KPISoft and/ or MySJ towards IP ownership as stated in court documents and related documents.
“The PAC will peruse all testimonies, documents, and minutes of meetings obtained and will make a decision on whether to summon further witnesses,” said the Ipoh Timur MP.
Last Thursday, after the PAC hearing, Wong told reporters that the government was “confused” about who had appointed KPISoft (now Entomo Malaysia Sdn Bhd) to develop the MySejahtera app.
He confirmed that no contract was ever signed between the government and the app developer over the past two years, nor was there a letter of appointment for KPISoft, save a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) signed between MKN and the company on “the data”.
The PAC’s request to the government to suspend the formal appointment of MySJ, which is being directly awarded a contract for MySejahtera, is likely to prolong the controversy surrounding data privacy and ownership of the Covid-19 contact tracing and management app that has at least 38 million users.
Khairy told a press conference last April 14 that the Ministry of Health (MOH) was in the final stages of negotiations with MySJ over MySejahtera.
He also confirmed with reporters yesterday that MySJ can access the MySejahtera database to resolve user issues – but only under MOH’s supervision – even though the government has yet to sign a contract with the private company that is an entirely different legal entity from the app developer, Entomo Malaysia.
