KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 – The MySejahtera controversy surrounding the Covid-19 app – which was initially developed for the federal government free of charge, however has now been instantly awarded to a non-public firm – shouldn’t be distinctive to Malaysia.
In France, the nation’s CeaseCovid app – which has since been renamed “TousAntiCovid” (Everyone Against Covid) – is the topic of a preliminary investigation by France’s National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) for the prison offence of “favouritism”, reported France’s national newspaper Le Monde jointly with newswire AFP in May final yr.
The “favouritism” probe by PNF – which specialises in prosecuting corruption, bribery, and offences towards public funds, amongst others – was opened September 2020, after a French anti-corruption organisation filed a criticism in June 2020 for the alleged award of contracts associated to the Covid-19 app with out open tender. Favouritism is defined underneath the French Criminal Code because the crime of granting an unfair benefit in public procurement contracts.
Details of the legally gray procurement of Malaysia’s MySejahtera and France’s TousAntiCovid cell Covid-19 purposes are remarkably related.
Like MySejahtera that was developed by Entomo Malaysia Sdn Bhd (previously KPISoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd) free of charge for the Malaysian authorities in a one-year company social duty (CSR) initiative ending March 31, 2021, TousAntiCovid (often known as CeaseCovid then) was developed professional bono with out cost for the French authorities.
TousAntiCovid was created by the CeaseCovid undertaking group, comprising 9 private and non-private organisations “acting on a pro bono basis”, to offer French well being authorities a digital contact tracing software to assist handle the Covid-19 pandemic, based on an April 26, 2020 press release by the CeaseCovid undertaking group.
France’s CeaseCovid authorities undertaking was performed underneath State supervision – much like MySejahtera that was developed underneath the federal government’s purview, although specific jurisdiction is unclear with the involvement of several agencies previous to Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s appointment in addition to the Ministry of Health (MOH), such because the National Security Council (NSC), the National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA), and the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU).
MySejahtera has been primarily utilized by Malaysia’ MOH for contact tracing by way of mandated check-ins at public premises, although it was used later to additionally host digital Covid-19 vaccination certificates – much like TousAntiCovid (albeit with a bluetooth perform for contract tracing, reasonably than QR code scans). However, use of the TousAntiCovid app has by no means been made necessary in France.
MySejahtera was created by Entomo Malaysia utilizing its proprietary KPISoft software program, in accordance an October 6, 2020 MySejahtera licence agreement between Entomo Malaysia and MySJ Sdn Bhd, the corporate that’s presently negotiating with the federal government over the app. On the opposite hand, based on the CeaseCovid undertaking group, TousAntiCovid was developed with an open supply licence for the sake of transparency.
French media outlet L’Obs revealed in June 2020 that the upkeep and internet hosting of TousAntiCovid (or CeaseCovid) offered by the corporate Outscale – a subsidiary of French software program company Dassault Systèmes, one of many CeaseCovid undertaking group members – had been billed for an estimated working price of between €200,000 and €300,000 a month.
Then-French Secretary of State for Digital Cédric O reportedly confirmed on June 23, 2020 that the TousAntiCovid app prices the federal government between €160,000 and €200,000 a month, comprising pc internet hosting (€40,000), upkeep and growth of the app (€40,000 to €80,000), consumer help (€50,000), and deployment prices (€30,000).
Anti-corruption organisation Anticor mentioned in a March 22, 2021 statement, after submitting a criticism with the Court of Justice of the Republic on the alleged direct award, that the pricing for operation and upkeep of TousAntiCovid of as much as €200,000 month-to-month went “well beyond the regulatory thresholds allowing an exemption from the call for tenders procedure.”
Anticor identified that requires open tender are required for presidency provide and repair contracts exceeding €139,000, excluding tax, primarily based on public procurement guidelines.
Anticor, citing a CeaseCovid monetary assertion, additionally mentioned the TousAntiCovid contract really ran increased at €6.5 million (about RM30 million), together with tax, with further new expenditure gadgets — comprising licences (€69,676, together with tax/ yr), consumer help (€720,000, together with tax/ yr), deployment administration (€432,000, together with tax/ yr), internet hosting (€576,000, together with tax/ yr), in addition to a communication marketing campaign for the app (€2,793,000, together with tax/ yr). These pricings, mentioned the anti-graft group, exceeded business observe.
Excluding communication prices, TousAntiCovid reportedly prices €3.7 million (roughly RM17 million) with tax.
In distinction, Entomo Malaysia told the Malaysian government in its MySejahtera public-private partnership proposal in November or December 2020 that it prices about RM138.9 million yearly to function the app, together with software program as a service (SaaS) that prices RM120 million a yr.
MySejahtera is about eight instances dearer to run, primarily based on the app developer’s estimates, than TousAntiCovid (excluding promotion prices and together with tax) that serves France’s 67.8-million inhabitants, double the scale of Malaysia’s 32.4 million inhabitants.
Anticor maintained that every of the gadgets of expenditure for TousAntiCovid – whether or not for communication or operation of the app – ought to have been known as for tender or a aggressive procurement process.
“The absence of a call for tenders in cases where it is mandatory, is likely to constitute the criminal offence of favouritism. Anticor considers that for public contracts involving such large amounts, competitive bidding was mandatory to guarantee transparency, on the one hand in the awarding of contracts and on the other hand, in the use of public money.”
Here in Malaysia, the federal government’s direct award of the MySejahtera contract to MySJ shouldn’t be presently underneath a prison or corruption probe, though Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is ready to launch on April 14 its investigation on the procurement and growth of the Covid-19 app.
The authorities says it has not but paid a sen to the MySejahtera app developer, Entomo Malaysia, even after the top of the corporate’s CSR initiative greater than a yr in the past. In its October 2020 licence settlement, Entomo Malaysia transferred its mental property (IP) rights over MySejahtera to MySJ and granted the corporate a software program licence for RM338.6 million in an agreement until end 2025.
At the Dewan Negara last week, Khairy justified the federal government’s direct negotiations with MySJ, saying that as a result of extra modules had been wanted for the MySejahtera app, MOH determined to proceed with the “existing operator” reasonably than to search for a brand new one.
According to the PAC’s Covid-19 vaccine procurement report tabled within the Dewan Rakyat final March 24, committee chairman Wong Kah Woh questioned the direct negotiation MySejahtera award to MySJ, noting that Entomo Malaysia – by way of its preliminary CSR undertaking for the app – had bypassed authorities procurement protocols that require open tender for contracts above RM200,000 or RM400,000, until accredited by the finance minister.
Unlike France’s TousAntiCovid controversy, which seems to focus particularly on the alleged breach of public procurement guidelines, the MySejahtera scandal is much extra complicated with points — in addition to procurement — involving the app’s possession and information safety, as a result of lack of a contract between the federal government and the app developer when MySejahtera was created in a CSR undertaking.
Even nationwide safety considerations have been cited by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and different Pakatan Harapan MPs, after CodeBlue reported that Entomo Malaysia is fully owned by Singaporean company Entomo Pte Ltd, listed on Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) information as “foreign”.
Khairy has but to reveal what precisely is being negotiated by MOH with MySJ – whether or not it’s to purchase over all the app and its IP or to buy the MySejahtera SaaS – though he told a press conference last March 28 that the deal underneath negotiation is “much, much lower” than RM300 million.
