THE government is still negotiating terms with MySJ Sdn Bhd on subscribing the services of the MySejahtera application, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

He said that the purported sum agreement between the app’s original developer, Entomo Malaysia Sdn Bhd, and licence holder, MySJ Sdn Bhd, has nothing to do with the government’s negotiation with the latter.

“The amount they (MySJ Sdn Bhd) have agreed to with Entomo has nothing to do with the government’s negotiation.

“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 told reporters after attending the launch of the book Malaysian Healthcare Building for Future Excellence, Equity and Resilience.

Earlier today, CodeBlue reported that the MySejahtera app would be sold by Entomo Malaysia Sdn Bhd to MySJ Sdn Bhd for RM338.6 million.

The sum is for a deal that will last until 2025, and is disclosed in legal documents in a suit filed by one of MySJ’s shareholders, P2 Asset Management Sdn Bhd.

Entomo Malaysia, previously known as KPISoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd, developed and owns the proprietary software used to build the MySejahtera app.

Khairy said that the current legal suit was for Entomo Malaysia and MySJ to resolve, while he reiterated that the mobile application was still safe to use.

He said the data captured in the app was secured by the government under the National Cyber Security Agency (Nacsa), National Security Council (NSC), and Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu).

“The court case is between Entomo and MySJ, that’s something for them to resolve, nothing to do with the government.

“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 (Sdn Bhd),” Khairy said.

The health minister said that the government would not hesitate to source for a new vendor if its negotiation with MySJ fails.

“Of course we want the (current) negotiation to be a success, so that it will be easier for us to continue using the platform.

“But I have already informed the vendor, if we can’t reach a fair agreement, then we will choose the right vendor as the data is still secured by the government.

“It is just that, with the new company, we may need to make a new agreement, he said.

Khairy also reiterated that the government had never made any payments to KPISoft Malaysia, which developed the app throughout the duration of its use from March 27, 2020 to March 31, 2021.

He said 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.

He also said no payment was also made after the CSR period ended.

Khairy said that when he was appointed the health minister, he wanted to ensure that the management of the app would to be regularised by his ministry.

“There was no payment also (after CSR ended). When I was appointed the 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.

“So I brought this matter to the cabinet. I said that we need to have a contract signed together between the government and the company that is operating this platform,” he added. – March 28, 2022.