Selangor Journal
The Parliament building of Malaysia, on May 18, 2020. — Picture by BERNAMA

PAC: Proceedings on MySejahtera development, procurement issues mid-April

KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 — The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will initiate proceedings on the issue of development and procurement of the MySejahtera application in mid-April, said its chairman Wong Kah Woh.

He said the proceedings would involve the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Prime Minister’s Department, with two key witnesses to appear before the committee, namely Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz and Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

According to Wong, the issue needs to be explained transparently before the PAC that acts as a non-partisan committee, in the interest of the people and the country, especially on the appointment of a private company as the operator of the application through direct negotiations and also on costs involved.

“The proceedings are in line with the powers held by the committee under Standing Order 77 (1) (d) of the Dewan Rakyat, which allows the committee to examine any matter it deems fit,” he said in a statement today.

Apart from that, Wong said the PAC would use its authority under Standing Order 83 (2) and Article 11 (b) of General Circular No. 2 of 1982, in handling the proceedings.

Wong said on September 21 last year, the government, through a reply in the Dewan Rakyat, stated that the MySejahtera application started as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) project that ended on March 31, 2021, before deciding to make payments for its use from April 1 last year.

The issue of the MySejahtera application was also contained in the PAC report on the procurement of the Covid-19 vaccine and its use for Malaysians, which was tabled in Parliament on December 1, 2021.

Wong said that at the time, the PAC concluded that the CSR concept had been used as a mechanism to procure government projects without going through proper procurement procedures.

He said the PAC had recommended that the government should not pay for the use of MySejahtera, as its development was CSR-based, and the government should take over the operation of the application without incurring any additional costs as it was part of the national health system.

On March 8 this year, Wong said that the committee held follow-up proceedings from the controlling officers, and was informed, among others, that the Cabinet meeting on November 26, 2021, had given approval to the MOH to appoint MYSJ Sdn Bhd through direct negotiation to refine the procurement process of the MySejahtera application.

“PAC was informed that the MOH needs to carry out due diligence on the company to be appointed, and PAC also raised the question of how the ownership of the application was transferred from KPISoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd to MYSJ Sdn Bhd through direct negotiations to the new company, as it should not have happened.

The PAC’s follow-up report was then tabled in the Dewan Rakyat on March 24 and the issue has received widespread attention from the public over the past week, he said.

— Bernama

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