[UPDATED] Govt still negotiating MySejahtera subscription terms: KJ

KUALA LUMPUR – Putrajaya is still in the midst of negotiating with licence holder MySJ Sdn Bhd on services subscription terms of the MySejahtera application, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

Khairy said that the deal to transfer the app’s intellectual property and software licence between its original developer Entomo Malaysia (previously known as KPISoft Sdn Bhd) and MySJ has nothing to do with the government’s latest negotiation. 

His response came after a report by health portal CodeBlue which cited court documents detailing that the MySejahtera app would be sold by Entomo to MySJ for RM338.6 million in a deal until end 2025.

"The amount they (MySJ) have agreed to with Entomo has nothing to do with the government's negotiation,” Khairy told reporters after attending The United Nations University, International Institute of Global Health’s new book launch.

"I can tell you for a fact that the amount that we are negotiating with is much lower than RM300 million. It is far lower than that.”

Khairy, who is also Rembau MP, said that the current court case involving Entomo and MySJ is their business and the government has no intentions to interfere. 

He reiterated that the government is the custodian of all data collected by MySejahtera, and that the data is kept secured under National Cyber Security Agency, National Security Council and Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit.

“The government maintains that as far as MySejahtera… the application and also the data inside MySejahtera is owned by the government, and that is the basis of our negotiation with MySJ,” he said.

Khairy said MySejahtera was developed by KPISoft as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) project in March 2020, with the CSR service lasting a year. 

The government has not made any payments to the developer even after the CSR period ended last March, and Khairy said he instructed the Health Ministry to make efforts to formalise the management of the application when he took over the portfolio.

“When I was appointed as health minister, I said that we need to regularise this service as they cannot be doing CSR forever, as suddenly they will ask us to pay and all that,” he said.

“So I brought this matter to the cabinet. I said that we need to have a contract signed between the government and the company that is operating this platform.”

However, Khairy said the government would not hesitate to secure a new vendor should the current negotiations fail.

“Of course we want the negotiations to be a success, because it would be easier for us to continue using the platform. But I have already informed the vendors that if the government cannot get a fair deal, then we will pick another vendor. 

“The data is kept by the government. It’s just that the new company needs to make a new deal in terms of platform maintenance. But we’re also in the process of looking at what services we need for the long term.

“For example, the check-in function may not be required in the next few months, so it’s best for us to look into the type of services needed and proceed from there.” – The Vibes, March 28, 2022