Foreign worker management system ran for six years without contract, says PAC

KUALA LUMPUR: The Foreign Workers Centralised Management System (FWCMS) was used for more than six years without a finalised contract, says Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman also found that the FWCMS contract was not finalised and signed between the vendor and government even though an acceptance letter was issued on January 12, 2018.

“PAC has concluded that the implementation period to develop the FWCMS ended on May 2024 according to the acceptance letter and the agreement has yet to the signed as of March 13,” she said in a press conference at Parliament media room today.

Mas Ermieyati said the PAC proceedings also found that the Cabinet on August 26, 2015, had approved the development of the Foreign Workers Integrated Management System (ePPAx) system dan FWCMS which are two systems under a single window concept.

"This has resulted in overlapping functions between agencies in developing the foreign worker management system and the wastage of public funds,” she added.

Mas Ermieyati said the PAC report on the ePPAx and FWCMS under the Human Resources Ministry and Home Ministry, respectively, was based on four proceedings conducted by the committee.

The proceedings were held in Dec 5, 2023; January 22, and March 13 this year calling witnesses from the Audit Department and Home Ministry and Human Resources Ministry, Labour Department of Peninsular Malaysia and Bestinet Sdn Bhd, the vendor for the FWCMS system.

According to the Home Ministry, Bestinet had applied to extend the contract for a period of six years and to increase the collection fee to RM120 from RM100, Mas Ermieyati said.

“On June 24, the Home Ministry had informed that the Cabinet agreed to extend the contract to three years with Bestinet.

“The PAC will obtain such information in the next follow up proceeding which will be conducted three months from today,” she added.