KUCHING – There is an urgent need to be transparent over the RM5 billion Covid-19 spending to instil public confidence following yesterday’s technical glitches during the AstraZeneca vaccine opt-in programme.
“This is in view of certain quarters questioning whether the RM70 million allocated for the immunisation programme data integration and appointment system is justified, especially after yesterday’s AstraZeneca registration fiasco,” said Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen.
Dr Yii – who also chairman of the parliamentary select committee for health, science and innovation – said: “We acknowledge that the openness of the vaccine coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin explaining that the sum is firstly a ceiling level set by the Finance Ministry, and it also includes other deliverables, including management and monitoring of the immunisation programme’s progress as well as the development of a dashboard for daily reporting among others.
“Even so, there must be greater transparency in all these expenditures including contractors involved, job scope and deliverables to avoid the risk of abuse and possible over-profiteering.
“Extraordinary times call for extraordinary transparency.”
Dr Yii added that the public is not against spending reasonably for such important necessities, but they expect quality from the job that was tendered, and from evidence from not just yesterday but previous incidents, there are indeed serious doubts.
He said on top of that, from the breakdown of the RM70 million, it also includes expenditures for the hotline and calling centres.
“For the past weeks, we have been receiving non-stop complaints on the official JKJAV (Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee) hotline where many failed to call in or where connections get cut off when they have an inquiry or also when they try to make changes to appointment time and dates.
“We are made to understand that such services were outsourced by the government to a third party, but it is their responsibility to monitor to make sure quality is constantly being maintained.
“As a result, due to the substandard quality of service rendered, many of the elderly who were unsure end up nor turning up for their appointment as they were unable to obtain required information from the hotline.”
He said the main question that must be answered by the ministry is whether the total RM70 million allocated is actually reasonable for the job scope specified by the minister.
“If we put it in comparison to the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates from COVAX Working Group on Delivery Cost, the recommended budgeting for innovations for a total of one billion doses or a 500 million population is at US$91.2 million (RM377.74 million). This covers similar job scopes including data integration, digital micro-planning, appointment systems, and others.
“If we take that into account in our local context, and our country’s target of vaccinating 28 million (80%) of our population, the total recommended cost for such items should only be around RM18.07 million, which is almost a quarter of the amount allocated based on the public statement released by the ministry.
“That is why we urge the prime minister to reconvene Parliament to allow such important decisions to be debated and scrutinised. The parliamentary select committee should also be allowed to provide parliamentary oversight over the rollout and approach towards the pandemic.
“During this pandemic, where billions of public funds of money is being used, it is of utmost importance that all matters, procedures, and financial procedures of the country are complied, to make sure that people’s money is really being spent prudently and efficiently.”
Dr Yii also said that lawmakers must be allowed to play an effective role in providing a check and balance mechanism in the democratic system to the government as to promote the spirit of transparency and accountability, especially during this period. – The Vibes, May 27, 2021
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