PAC chairman Mas Ermieyati Samsudin said there was no contract between Putrajaya and Bestinet on the FWCMS despite a letter of acceptance issued in January 2018 for the development of the system.
“This means that the government and home ministry have been using the FWCMS for six years without a finalised contract, and this clearly breaches government regulations.
“The home ministry and Bestinet must immediately finalise their decision on the agreement and the direction of the FWCMS,” she said in a statement.
The then Barisan Nasional government approved the development of the FWCMS under the home ministry and the human resources ministry’s Integrated Foreign Workers Management (ePPAx) system in August 2015.
Mas Ermieyati said both systems were single-window concepts, which led to overlaps in function and the waste of public funds.
She added that during PAC proceedings, officials from both the home and human resources ministries had said that the intake of migrant workers could be done without the FWCMS, either manually or through the ePPAx system.
“The two ministries need to work together to come up with a strategic plan for the management of migrant workers, not limited to the development of a system.
“Both ministries need to ensure that there are no more overlaps in the functions of the systems that have been developed, which has led to public funds being wasted,” said the Masjid Tanah MP.
Last week, home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the Cabinet had agreed in principle to extend Bestinet’s contract to provide IT systems for the recruitment of foreign workers.
He did not provide details about the duration of the contract, but Mas Ermieyati said the extension was for three years.
Bestinet’s previous six-year contract with the home ministry to develop, supply, provide and maintain the FWCMS ended on May 31.
Meanwhile, the PAC chief urged the police to provide an update on investigations regarding the approval granted by “unauthorised users” for 24 migrant worker quota applications.
The unauthorised approval, discovered by the national audit department, showed weaknesses in the management of IDs in the FWCMS, she said.