In a statement, Bestinet said Santiago was “clearly misinformed” on the company’s role and the nature of its business.

“The company regrets that Santiago has chosen to issue untruthful and misleading allegations against Bestinet without seeking any dialogue. Bestinet is demanding an immediate apology and a retraction by Santiago,” it said in a statement.

Bestinet added that it takes Santiago’s allegations very seriously and reserves the right to take all necessary steps to claim damages and losses from such claims.

Yesterday, Santiago urged the government to do away with Bestinet and labour brokers to make the migrant worker recruitment process transparent, adding that the company was controlled by a “major labour broker”.

In July last year, the company was raided by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) after a labour agency in Dhaka accused Bestinet’s founder of “persuading” the government to limit the number of agencies that supply Bangladeshi workers to only 25.

Santiago said the management of foreign worker recruitment should be placed under the Prime Minister’s Office, instead of the home ministry and the human resources ministry.

Bestinet is the IT system provider for the recruitment of workers from all source countries.

In its statement, the company said it was given the mandate by the government in 2013 to implement the foreign workers centralised management system.

“Bestinet is not a recruitment agency nor involved in the operation of the foreign workers recruitment process in Malaysia or in any labour source country,” it added.

It said all matters regarding the recruitment process of foreign workers, including the number of recruitment agents, are discussed and agreed upon on a government-to-government level between Putrajaya and the source countries.

“Bestinet’s management, including the founder, is not involved in nor privy to this process,” it said, adding that the actual number of companies in Bangladesh accredited to supply workers was 100 instead of 25.