PETALING JAYA, May 21 — The Immigration Department’s operating system to process passports and visas is outdated and incapable of handling the stresses placed on it today, said sources in the department.

Following public tip-offs over service disruptions at several Immigration counters in Selangor, Johor and Perak, sources claimed the system had become overtaxed due to the large number of subsystems attached to it over the years.

This comes after Malay Mail on Wednesday exposed flaws in the Malaysia Immigration System (myIMMS) which screens foreigners entering the country. 

“What we have currently was acquired in 1997. It is old, outdated and incapable of meeting the current requirements.

“In the past we did not have to handle biometric data at entry points but now we do. The additional data is overburdening the operating system,” a source said.

The source denied that the service disruption affecting many passport applicants since Thursday was a nationwide problem and was confined to several centres.

“The Putrajaya Immigration centre was slow today (yesterday). There were some hiccups and they are being fixed. This is due to a routine maintenance exercise and the public has been informed.

“But this is symptomatic of the problem. It needs to be changed...we need to upgrade our operating systems,” he said.

Another source told Malay Mail the operating system run by MyEG, a concessionaire for Malaysian Electronic-Government applications, was being overburdened by outsourced vendors.

“MyEG is used by foreign-based vendors who process visa applications. This is taxing the system as it has to cope with applications from India, China and elsewhere,” he said.

The source also said the much criticised myIMMs system was used in all of Malaysia’s overseas missions and was incapable of handling its workload, leading to frequent breakdowns.

Currently, Malaysia has 66 embassies, 16 high commissions, three permanent representatives to the United Nations and Asean, 19 consulate offices and a Malaysian Friendship and Trade Centre.

Malay Mail had reported that the myIMMs was being deliberately crashed by individuals working with criminal elements to get individuals through immigration at KLIA.

A source in the Home Ministry said it was investigating the department, airline staff, and employees of the system development company. 

The Public Accounts Committee had also announced it would call in the Immigration Department for questioning over the fiasco.