KUALA LUMPUR (March 31): The government has so far not approved or made any payment to the operator of MySejahtera application, said Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

"The government and the Ministry of Health (MoH) will ensure that any decision on the payment will take into account the interests of the country and its people.

‘Therefore, the negotiation is still ongoing, and we will try as much as possible to achieve a win-win situation," he added.

Winding up the debate on a motion on the MySejahtera application in the Dewan Negara on Thursday (March 31), Khairy said the price that is being negotiated is “far less than RM300 million” market price.

Khairy said there was no issue on the sale of the application to a private entity as it was a decision of the Cabinet in November last year which agreed that the ownership of MySejahtera is to be transferred from the National Security Council (NSC) to MoH.

The NSC had on behalf of the government entered into a non-disclosure agreement with KPISoft (M) Sdn Bhd (now known as Entomo Malaysia) on April 1, 2020, on terms agreed upon by both parties before the government launched the MySejahtera app on April 20, 2020. KPISoft was responsible for managing the application.

However, when Khairy was appointed as Health Minister on Aug 30 last year, he took the view that the MoH should take over the operation of MySejahtera from the NSC, as the key functions and data obtained through the application are related to healthcare.

Then, in November, the Cabinet agreed that ownership of MySejahtera's data would be transferred from the NSC to the MoH, allowing the Ministry to facilitate the operation of the system. MySejahtera enables contact monitoring and tracking as well as strengthening public health.

"Just to clarify, this transfer is not from a private company to the MOH, but from another government agency to the MoH," Khairy said in his winding-up speech.

He said one of the main factors for selecting KPISoft is the company's offer to provide corporate social responsibility services for one year, from March 27, 2020 to March 31, 2021.

The Minister clarified that the government did not make any payment to the company during the entire CSR period.

"I would like to reiterate that the government has not approved or made any payment to the operator of the MySejahtera application to date,” he said.

Khairy also clarified the shareholders of Entomo Pte Ltd (earlier known as KPISoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd) based in Singapore are Malaysians.

“They made the decision to be based in Singapore as other technology companies from Malaysia as it is easier to obtain investors in Singapore,” he said.

News portal Codeblue had earlier reported, citing court documents, that there was a licencing agreement between KPISoft and MySJ Sdn Bhd in October 2020, which stipulated that KPISoft would transfer the intellectual property of MySejahtera and grant the software licence for the app to MySJ Sdn Bhd for RM338.6 million. The agreement was expected to run until the end of 2025.

Khairy said he is ready to testify before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the development of the MySejahtera application.

"There is nothing to hide. The MoH and I will fully cooperate with all the procedures that will be carried out, including those of PAC," he said.

On Wednesday (March 30), the PAC said it would begin an investigation into the development and procurement of the MySejahtera app in mid-April, saying the controversial matter needed to be cleared up transparently for the sake of the people and the country.

Its chairman Wong Kah Woh said the first two witnesses, Finance Minister and Health Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz and Khairy Jamaluddin, would be called to testify. The time and date for the trial would be announced soon.

At the same time, the PAC raised the issue of how the ownership of the MySejahtera app was transferred from KPISoft to MySJ. The PAC said it believes that a new company should not be appointed through direct negotiation.