KUALA LUMPUR – Controversial IT solutions firm Bestinet Sdn Bhd’s patenting of the Foreign Workers Centralised Management System (FWCMS) was a point of concern for the Home Ministry during previous Public Accounts Committee (PAC) proceedings.
Among the issues raised by the ministry’s chief secretary, Datuk Ruji Ubi, were Bestinet’s exclusive property right over the system, and potential problems for Putrajaya if the government were to decide against continuing its relationship with the company.
Furthermore, extensive delays preventing the signing of the FWCMS contract between the government and Bestinet exposed the government to “risks”.
“The issue regarding handing over the entire (FWCMS) system to the government is mentioned in the contract, it’s just that it’s not signed,” Ruji told the PAC during a proceeding on December 5 last year, according to the committee’s Hansard.
“Since the contract isn’t signed, there is a risk to the government. It means that anybody else cannot come up with a system (like the FWCMS). That’s the risk the government bears, which is wrong, morally wrong, legally right (as Bestinet) has a right (to patent the system).
“(Bestinet) might have had good intentions to later surrender (the system) to the government, and potentially, the worst part, bad intentions. To protect or to – I mean, prevent others from having the same system,” he added.
Ruji also told the committee that the Home Ministry and the Human Resources Ministry were not aware of Bestinet’s patent on the FWCMS until the matter was addressed in the 2022 Auditor-General’s Report.
Clarifying the matter, the Home Ministry’s legal advisor, Siti Amirah Johari, confirmed that the letter of acceptance (LoA) issued to Bestinet on January 12, 2018 regarding the development of the FWCMS did not state that the company would be required to hand over the system to the government.
However, she said that under an agreement for the FWCMS Bio-Medical System, which was in force from June 2015 to May 2022, it was stated that Bestinet would have to surrender “data documents”, including records and intellectual property rights, to the government once the agreement had ended.
This requirement, Siti Amirah told the PAC during the same proceeding, had been included in the FWCMS contract draft, which was then being “negotiated” with Bestinet.
In its findings published yesterday, PAC found that as of March 13, the FWCMS contract had yet to be finalised and signed between the government and Bestinet as the vendor, despite the issued LoA.
This means that the government and Home Ministry have been using the FWCMS for six years without a finalised contract, in clear breach of government regulations, the PAC report noted. Meanwhile, during separate PAC proceedings on January 22 this year, Bestinet chief executive Ismail Mohd Noor affirmed that the company had “trademarked, copyrighted and patented” the FWCMS “to protect the government’s interests”.
“Our commitment is that we will hand over the patent to the Malaysian government once we surrender the system, its hardware, software and documentation, so the government is the beneficiary of the patent,” he was quoted as saying.
“We (will) fully surrender ownership of (FWCMS’) intellectual property to the government. We will not claim anything.”
When questioned by PAC chairperson Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin on the company’s stance if the government were to decide to develop its own system without Bestinet’s involvement, Ismail said the firm had a “moral” commitment against making claims from the government.
He pointed out, however, that there was no legal commitment for Bestinet to surrender the FWCMS to the government as the relevant contract had yet to be signed.
Scoop previously reported that Bestinet was still being investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission as of January this year.
The PAC proceedings raise questions about the cabinet’s decision to extend Putrajaya’s relationship with Bestinet following the expiration of its six-year contract with the Home Ministry to develop, supply, provide and maintain the FWCMS on May 31.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail had on June 24 reportedly confirmed the three-year contract extension following reports by several media outlets on the matter, with the minister stating then that the cabinet had finalised the decision “a few weeks ago”.
While the exact date of the cabinet’s decision and the terms of the extended contract remain unknown, Mas Ermieyati has since confirmed that the PAC will be scrutinising the matter in follow-up proceedings scheduled to be held within three months from now. – July 4, 2024