Why hire unknown firm to screen foreign workers’ health, asks PKR

By: Guong Pro on 05:56

Opposition party PKR wants Putrajaya to explain why it chose an unknown company to handle the biometric registration of foreign workers. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, January 21, 2015.Putrajaya must explain how an obscure company linked to a former Umno minister was awarded the contract to handle the biometric registration of Malaysia-bound foreign workers, opposition party PKR said today.BestiNet Sdn Bhd since last Thursday has been handling visa applications and health checks of migrant workers at source countries online, through the Foreign Workers Centralised Management System.Checks with the Companies Commission of Malaysia ‎revealed that ‎the company registered in November 17, 2008, is a former RM2 company and counts former Home Minister Tan Sri Azmi Khalid as one of its directors.PKR Youth information chief Lee Chean Chung said the company had not submitted its annual report since 2010 and was classified as "dormant".Lee said outsourcing the registration of foreign workers to a third party should not have happened as it involved sensitive information which affects the country's security and sovereignty.He added that Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi must explain how the project was awarded to BestiNet which did not have the track record in developing an online system.‎"Is the contract awarded through an open tender and what is Azmi's role in this?"What ‎is the value of the contract? Who will pay for Bestinet's services?" he said at a press conference today.The Semambu assemblyman was shocked to learn of Azmi's involvement in the company, saying that it gave the impression that the project was awarded based on connections and internal negotiations, which gave rise to conflict of interest.PKR strategic director Sim Tze Tzin voiced his suspicions on BestiNet, saying prior to 2013, the company was not active."They became active last year after an injection of funds, which I find suspicious because there is no track record as to their expertise," he said, adding that Azmi is a career politician and not a biometrics expert.
PKR’s Lee Chean Chung said BestiNet was not an active company. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Mukhriz Hazim, January 21, 2015.But, Azmi insisted that everything is above board and dismissed allegations that national security is at risk."There is no hanky-panky here," Azmi told The Malaysian Insider yesterday, referring to the private IT firm.The former Umno supreme council member and public accounts committee chairman also refused to elaborate, saying he would address the issue in the near future.The other directors in the company are Datuk Tengku Omar Tengku Bot, Rathakrishnan Vellaisamy and Aminul Islam Abdul Nor.Critics, including foreign governments, said biometrics system incurred added costs and security concerns over worker information.Countries, such as Nepal, which sends hundreds of migrant workers to Malaysia daily has expressed concern that workers would have to pay extra costs and had yet to give its final approval for the system.Recruitment companies in the Himalayan country declared that they would halt sending new workers to Malaysia until the Nepalese government makes a final decision.The system was introduced to prevent fraudulent medical reporting and the Immigration Department has said that it would be implemented in stages beginning with workers from Nepal and Bangladesh. – January 21, 2015.