When the MySejahtera application was first introduced, us Malaysians were wary that the application was being used to monitor and track us.
Now, it appears that the app, which holds private information on millions of people, has been sold to a private company?
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has since raised the red flag on the sale.
He wrote, “The 24 March 2022 Public Accounts Commission (PAC) hearing raised questions about the sale of the MySejahtera Covid-19 tracking app to a company in the private sector. The government’s decision to give up control of the MySejahtera app was made by the Cabinet during a meeting on 26 November 2021.”
“Approval was given by the Cabinet to the Ministry of Health (MOH) to appoint MySJ Sdn. Bhd. by direct negotiation to take over the MySejahtera app. However, in December 2021, the PAC recommeneded that government should take over the operation of MySejahtera without incurring any additional costs given that it has become an integral part of the national health system.”
MOH officers had testified in front of the PAC that MySJ Sdn. Bhd. is not related to KPISoft, the company that built MySejahtera as a CSR initiative, but Anwar believes otherwise.
He claimed that despite KPISoft’s re-branding to Entomo, they are still linked to MySJ Sdn. Bhd. and that the firm is owned by political cronies.
“The directors of MySJ Sdn Bhd include 2 founders of KPISoft. The directors of MySJ Sdn. Bhd. also include individuals with political and business connections to parties in the ruling coalition government including Tan Sri Dato Seri Shahril Bin Shamsuddin, who was the CEO of Sapura Energy until March 2021 and Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Megat Najmuddin who was an UMNO division chief and later, a senior member of BERSATU,”
“Furthermore, 81.4% of MySJ Sdn Bhd is owned by another company, Revolusi Asia Sdn. Bhd., of which 88% is owned by the founders of KPISoft. In other words, 71.2% of MySJ Sdn Bhd is owned by 2 co-founders of KPISoft, which built MySejahtera. To say that there is no link between KPISoft/Entomo and MySJ Sdn. Bhd. is not accurate,” he added.
Anwar went on to share that, due to the sale being a direct negotiation, the deal resembles the pattern of rewarding companies and individuals that have political and business connections with the government.
“Furthermore, the sale of MySejahtera to a private company raises substantial concerns about data privacy and the potential abuse of private health related data on millions of Malaysians,”
“MySejahtera has recorded, according to MOH published data on GitHub, over 11 billion check-ins since December 2020. This check-in data contains intimate details about people’s personal preferences, consumption patterns, social network. We assume that MySejahtera databases also include private personal health data about individuals’ reported health symptoms and Covid-19 positive diagnosis,” he explained.
With all that being said, Anwar raised multiple questions that require clarification from the Cabinet, including:
- Why was the decision made to sell MySejahtera to a company in the private sector instead of allowing the application to remain under the control of MOH?
- Why was a public tender not conducted in order to make the sale transparent?
- What are the reasons making MySJ Sdn. Bhd. the only company under consideration for this project?
- Does the Malaysian government frequently reward individuals or companies that conduct CSR for the benefit of the Malaysian people with lucrative contracts?
- What is MySJ Sdn. Bhd.’s scope of work as it pertains to the operation of MySejahtera and how is MOH able to ensure that the data collected by MySejahtera will not be misused by third parties including MySJ Sdn. Bhd.?
- Are the terms of this contract in compliance with the past assurances given by MOH regarding the appropriate use of Malaysians’ personal private health data, MySejahtera’s data privacy policy and the country’s data privacy laws?
- What are MySJ Sdn. Bhd.’s obligations to ensure that the data which Malaysians share via MySejahtera on the basis of a public mandate will not be used for marketing, product development, surveillance or discriminatory purposes?
And, Anwar isn’t the only one concerned as Klang MP Charles Santiago also raised a red flag on this matter.
Health Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, has since clarified that the government has never sold the MySejahtera application to any private parties.
“The government also did not make any payments to KPISOFT (M) Sdn. Bhd. (KPISOFT), which developed the MySejahtera application throughout the usage period of 27 March 2020 and 31 March 2021. This was based on the company’s decision to offer the application to the government for 1 year, without any charges, based on its corporate social responsibility (CSR) principle,”
Though, because the CSR period has ended, the government has decided to purchase the MySejahtera application.
“The government, on 26 November 2021, also decided for the Health Ministry to establish a Price Negotiation Committee, comprising of members from all stakeholder agencies, to negotiate the procurement and management of the application with the company for 2 years, in line with the government’s procurement procedures,” he added.
Let’s just hope that the ‘management’ aspect of the deal doesn’t include any third parties having access to the people’s private information.
Stay tuned for more updates.
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