Comments extracted from opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who raised the question on the sale of MySejahtera App to a private company. The PKR President asks why was this decision made and the concerns on private data of Malaysians being hosted on the platform.
Anwar said that on March 24, 2022, the Monetary Accounting Committee (PAC) meeting has raised questions about the sale of Covid-19 detection applications to a private company. The government decision for this ‘surrender’ has been decided by the cabinet on November 26, 2021. Permission has been given by the cabinet to the Ministry of Health to appoint MySJ Sdn. Bhd. through direct negotiation, a mechanism to obtain MySejahtera application.
However, in December 2021, the PAC has recommended that the government should resume MySejahtera operations at no additional cost since the application has now become an essential element in the national health system. Health Ministry officials who testified in front of the PAC claimed that MySJ Sdn. Bhd. has nothing to do with KPISoft, which is the company that developed the MySejahtera application as a CSR initiative. KPISoft has since changed the company name to Entomo.
He added that allegations that there is no connection between KPISoft/Entomo and MySJ Sdn. Bhd must be investigated adding that the directors of MySJ Sdn. Bhd. including two founders of KPISoft. The directors of MySJ Sdn. Bhd. also include individuals who have political and business ties with several parties in the government including Tan Sri Dato Seri Shahril Bin Shamsuddin who is the Chief Executive Officer of Sapura Energy until March 2021 and Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Megat Najmuddin who is a UMNO leader and later joined Bersatu.
Meanwhile, 81.4% shares of MySJ Sdn. Bhd. is owned by another company called Revolution Asia Sdn. bhd. where 88% belongs to the founders of KPISoft. In other words, 71.2% shares of MySJ Sdn. Bhd. is owned by two KPISoft founders who developed the MySejahtera application. To say that there is no connection between KPISoft/Entomo and MySJ Sdn. Bhd. is dishonest. Under an open tender system, these facts will be investigated by the government and the people. In a direct negotiation system, what is happening is just similar to the symptoms of awarding companies and individuals close to the government. Anwar further said that in addition, the sale of MySejahtera to private companies only raises concerns about the management of personal data and the possibility of misuse of health information of millions of Malaysians.
MySejahtera App has recorded more than 11 billion check-ins since December 2020, and this is according to GitHub. This check-in information contains a variety of meanings such as personal tendencies, usage patterns, or individual social sites they visit. The PRK leader suspects that the MySejatera database also includes individual health information about symptoms and positive diagnosis of Covid-19. The PAC also said that all data inside MySejahtera and its secrets are under the control of the Ministry of Health.
The MySejahtera GitHub site also states “According to the MySejahatera confidentiality policy, individual check-in data will be deleted after 90 days. The statistics of this formula are only saved as an aggregate number; MySejahtera does not store the data. In conclusion, data checking can not be done for dates more than 90 days, despite the existence of uncertainty.
Therefore, Anwar said these questions must be explained by the cabinet: Why was the decision taken to sell MySejahtera to a private company rather than allowing the application under the control of the KKM? Why isn’t the sale of this app made through an open tender on the basis of transparency? What are the reasons why MySJ Sdn. Bhd. became the only company considered for this project? Does the Malaysian government often award individuals or companies that run CSR for the benefit of Malaysians with a decent contract? What is the scope and expertise of MySJ Sdn. Bhd. related to the operation of MySejahtera and how KKM can ensure that the data collected by the application will not be misused by third parties including MySJ Ssdn.Bhd.
What are the contract conditions subject to the guarantee made by the KKM previously regarding personal health data, MySejahtera secret policy and state law regulating the privacy of individual data? What is the role and responsibility of MySJ Sdn. Bhd. in ensuring that the data shared by Malaysians through MySejahtera on the basis of the public mandate will not be used at all for marketing, product development, monitoring, or for purposes an who is discriminatory?
