AS Health Minister Khairy Jamuluddin and Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz gear up to be ‘grilled’ by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in due course, independent think tank EMIR Research has exposed the obscurity of the entire MySejahtera deal.
This is considering that not even high-level officials from the Health Ministry (MoH) and the Finance Ministry (MoF) are on the same page with regard to what is exactly happening within the COVID-19 contact tracing app.
“Based on reports on the Public Accounts Commission (PAC) hearing dated March 24, MOH’s deputy secretary-general (finance) Harjeet Singh told the PAC that KPISoft Sdn Bhd changed its name to MYSJ Sdn Bhd (MySJ),” wrote the think tank’s president & CEO Datuk Dr Rais Hussin and head of science and technology Ameen Kamal in a report.
“At the same time, we also have MoF’s deputy secretary at the Government Procurement Division Rosni Mohd Yusoff reportedly stating that KPISoft and MYSJ are two different entities.
“Through a press statement dated March 27, the MoH asserts that the Government owns MySejahtera while mentioning nothing about MySJ. However, later on, Khairy went on to say that the negotiations with MySJ would not continue should MySJ disagrees that the Government owns the app.”
Therefore, EMIR Research is baffled as to how MoH can be asserting that the Government has “decided” that the MySejahtera application is owned by the Government when the ownership can still be disputed?
“How can the MoH ignore MySJ’s ability to agree or disagree with this fundamental premise when it released the statement?” asked the think tank. “If we assume that MySJ has not agreed on the ownership of the app, what is the current fate of MySejahtera’s data?”
In this regard, the think tank cited a report by healthcare portal CodeBlue which pointed to Entomo Malaysia as the owner of “all rights, title, and interest, including all intellectual property (IP) rights” related to the MySejahtera app based on a share sale agreement on December 31, 2020 between MySJ’s shareholders.
CodeBlue noted that this excludes “trademark and data collected through the operation of MySejahtera” that are owned by the Malaysian Government. It is unclear what is the implication of the Malaysian Government owning the data without “all rights, title, and interest, including all intellectual property (IP) rights” of the MySejahtera app.
“Questions may arise on the accessibility, privacy, and security of the data which may not be exclusive to the Malaysian Government given that another private entity owns all rights,” EMIR Research pointed out.
Henceforth, two key questions that come to mind are as follows:
- Is the Malaysian Government the “sole” owner or one of the owners?
- Is the Malaysian Government the “only” party that has access to the trademark and data collected through the operation of MySejahtera?
Fair pricing
EMIR Research further noted that the reported RM338 mil licensing deal and the proposed 15-year scope expansion of MySejahtera for a reported RM138 mil annually will require an in-depth analysis of the breakdown of the costs which has not been provided to the public.
“This is also why an open tender for such services by other app developers will give a better idea of the industry landscape to have a better grasp on the fairness of the pricing,” opined the think tank. “Direct negotiation gives no room for comparative analysis.” On this note, EMIR Research highlighted how a Malaysian software developer has offered not only replicate MySejahtera but also improve it for about RM6 mil.
The company behind the project further claims that its software can also be enhanced with a geographical information system (GIS) which can gather data for visualisation and analysis for pandemic crisis management.
“There could be many other proposals by other companies if only an open tender was conducted, and if what appeared to be a ‘CSR trap’ didn’t happen,” lamented the think tank.
“The price given for extra features (proposed scope expansion) on top of what MySejahtera was initially intended for may include tracking of other vaccination, management of other infectious diseases (not just COVID-19), predictive analysis and integration with other existing government health systems.”
According to EMIR Research, the proposed scope expansion is a question for public health experts to determine if it is truly value-adding or not – and to investigate if it can work in practice to really help improve the public health system in the country.
“MySejahtera check-ins have reportedly dropped 26% due to mounting doubt and distrust by app users since the entire thing unfolded,” reckoned the think tank.
“Therefore, it is good that Khairy has requested for the deals surrounding MySejahtera to be debated on March 31 (today) in Dewan Negara as there are certainly more questions than answers at the moment.” – March 31, 2022
