Govt never sold MySejahtera app, says Khairy

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has assured that the government never sold the MySejahtera app to any private company, saying that it remains government-owned.

He said this was according to the government’s decision on Nov 26 last year that the health ministry be appointed as the main owner of the country’s public health management.

“MySejahtera data is under the ministry’s supervision since it was first used with all data management undergoing a data administration process set by the ministry,” he said in a statement responding to questions surrounding the app’s ownership status posed by several parties, including Port Dickson MP Anwar Ibrahim.

Khairy also said that the government had never made any payments to KPISOFT (M) Sdn Bhd (KPISOFT) which developed the app throughout the duration of its use from March 27, 2020 to March 31, 2021.

According to him, the company offered the use of the app to the government for a year without any payment as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) principles.

After the CSR period ended, Khairy said the government decided on March 31 last year to continue with MySejahtera’s services and implemented several function upgrades until it reached the version used today.

On Nov 26, 2021, the government determined that the health ministry should establish a price negotiation committee to conduct procurement price negotiations and app service management with the company for two years, in line with the government procurement guidelines, he said.

The procurement, he said, was agreed to by the finance ministry in a letter dated Feb 28 for implementation, and the negotiation process was ongoing. He said they would ensure that due diligence was conducted in the process to protect the interests of the government.

Khairy said that the scope of the procurement encompassed the operation of the MySejahtera platform, development of additional modules, maintenance, third-party database management and service, including subscriptions to Google Map and places application programming interface and the short messaging service.

Khairy said since its launch, MySejahtera had been used based on the software as a service approach, as it helped the government reduce the turnaround time needed to develop a new software.

According to him, the use and management of the data needs to comply with the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342), the Medical Act 1971 and international standards and will not be shared by the health ministry with any government or private agency.

“The ministry hopes that the public will continue to use the MySejehtera app without any concerns. Data confidentiality of the public is ensured, and the ministry will always ensure that this aspect is not compromised,” he said.

He added that data transactions from the current MySejahtera app have over 10 modules as well as 38 million registered users who upload to the cloud server network daily and can only be accessed for the use of the MySejahtera app.