This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 2, 2024 - December 8, 2024

The foreign labour market is a lucrative business in Malaysia. Every year, up to 2.7 million foreign workers come into the country seeking employment legally.

They fork out an estimated RM20,000 each to agents to get their documentation done and pay various fees such as the foreign workers’ levy and for a medical check-up. This makes the foreign worker business a RM50 billion a year enterprise that everyone — from politicians to agents — wants a slice of.

The bulk of the foreign workers comes from Bangladesh, followed by Nepal and Indonesia.

Intriguingly, because Bangladesh is a key supplier of foreign labour, a system developed by a company owned by a Bangladeshi businessman has positioned itself at the heart of the Malaysian Immigration Department to undertake the end-to-end processing of all foreign workers coming into the country.

This September, the government extended its six-year contract with Bestinet Sdn Bhd to use its Foreign Workers Centralized Management System (FWCMS) to process the entry and exit of foreign workers from all 15 countries that supply labour to Malaysia. This followed a cabinet decision made in May.

In return, Bestinet gets RM215 per foreign worker for its services, which works out to a staggering RM3.2 billion over six years, assuming that 2.5 million foreign workers are recruited each year.

The RM215 fee per worker is part of an agreement signed between the government and Bestinet, whereby the company drops all claims against the government for not enabling it to charge fees from 2018.

The September signing marks the second six-year contract for Bestinet. The first agreement between the government and Bestinet was in force from April 1, 2018, to May 31, 2024. The letter of acceptance (STS) to Bestinet was issued when Datuk Seri Najib Razak was the prime minister and Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi the home minister.

However, according to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the first agreement was not signed because of a dispute over the service fee for Bestinet.

According to the PAC report, the STS put the service charge for Bestinet at RM100 per worker while the government’s Public-Private Partnership Unit (UKAS) stated that the fee should be capped at a maximum of RM86 per worker based on the cost of developing the FWCMS.

Because the agreement was not firmed up, Bestinet was not paid, although the FWCMS was used to process the documents of workers from Bangladesh.

The Najib government fell in May 2018, after which a host of government contracts awarded by the Najib administration came under close scrutiny. Among them was the National Integrated Immigration System (NIISe), which was awarded to Awanbiru Technology Bhd (KL:AWANTEC) in 2019 at a value of RM4.5 billion.

The NIISe was supposed to be the backbone of the Immigration Department’s IT system, providing the end-to-end solution for all its needs, including the processing of foreign workers’ documents.

The NIISe contract was terminated in 2019, resulting in AwanTec, previously known as Prestariang Bhd, seeking compensation from the government through the courts. At the time, when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the prime minister, many contracts were reviewed, particularly the big-ticket ones.

However, Bestinet’s FWCMS survived, despite experiencing some degree of scrutiny.

Based on the PAC hearing last week, it is apparent that the FWCMS not only got through, but also continued to be used by the Immigration Department under successive prime ministers. It kept operating under Mahathir, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri, and still is under Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The issuance and renewal of foreign workers’ permits (PKLS) falls under the purview of the home ministry while the number of foreign workers needed comes under the Ministry of Human Resources. When Mahathir was the prime minister, Muhyiddin was the home minister while M Kulasegaran was the minister of human resources.

Between March 2020 and November 2022, Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin was the home minister while M Saravanan was the human resources minister. In November 2022, after Anwar took over, Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution became the home minister. V Sivakumar was the human resources minister but was replaced by Steven Sim a year later.

Numerous changes took place in the corridors of power in Putrajaya between May 2018 and November 2022 and several ministries saw a change in leadership.

But Bestinet and its FWCMS remained firmly in place. Why that was the case is anybody’s guess.

According to some executives in the foreign worker segment, Bestinet and the FWCMS stayed relevant because the majority of foreign workers were coming from Bangladesh.

Furthermore, as the owner — Datuk Seri Aminul Islam — is from Bangladesh, it is natural for Bestinet to source workers from that country.

However, the FWCMS was not fully operational. Although its 15 modules were meant to provide an “end-to-end” solution for foreign workers from all source countries, it was only applicable to workers from Bangladesh. Hence, not all the modules were utilised.

Interestingly, the mandate to process the PKLS for foreign workers from other countries was given by the home ministry to another company on one-year contracts with an option for renewal.

The big question is, if the FWCMS was not fully operational in the last six years, what is the certainty that it will be fully utilised in the next six years?

Also, since the first contract in 2018 was not finalised, why was this matter not acted upon by the previous ministers in charge of the home and human resources ministries?

Why did none of them raise matters related to Bestinet and the FWCMS in public, especially since they involved foreign workers, and allegations of exploitation were rampant?

In the latest development, it has been reported that the Bangladesh government is seeking the extradition of Bestinet’s Aminul and another person called Ruhul Amin for alleged extortion of Bangladeshi workers coming into Malaysia.

The government there has also asked Malaysia to stop using Bestinet’s FWCMS software.

Aminul, through his lawyers, has denied all allegations made by the Bangladesh government, which saw a change in leadership in August this year.

In response to the extradition request, Home Minister Saifuddin has said they are awaiting further clarification from the Bangladesh government on the matter.

The business of foreign workers is moneymaking, especially in Bangladesh. The extradition request probably came about after the change in government. For now, because there is so much money changing hands, this issue is not likely to end.

As for Aminul, he has survived five prime ministers and five changes in government in Malaysia since January 2018. Can he weather the change in the Bangladesh government?

M Shanmugam is a contributing editor at The Edge

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