JANUARY 31 — The Home Ministry closed the Immigration Department counters issuing migrant worker permits on January 5 this year and outsourced the registration to private company MyEG Services.
However, the counters were temporarily reopened until end of February after the move was severely criticised by employers nationwide. Before the tide subsided, the Home Ministry announced that effective on January 15, all counters for Immigration Department's Visa with Reference applications would be closed and the Foreign Workers Centralised Management System (FWCMS) was outsourced to another private company Bestinet, again triggering protests from the business community.
The Home Ministry has obviously disregarded of the people when it outsourced the FWCMS to a private company. The move has not only affected the interests of employers, but also allowed the company to monopolise the market. It is contrary to the government's Competition Act 2010, setting a bad example to business operators.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi claimed that renewing foreign worker permits online through MyEG could avoid being deceived and stop power abuse or corruption problems. However, the procedures of outsourcing the registration and application to MyEG and Bestinet without competitive bidding lack transparent.
It was said that one of Bestinet's directors are former Cabinet minister. If it is really the case, it would then mean the involvement of power abuse, isn't it?
Although computerising administrative work can save time and improve efficiency, and the business community also supports the government's implementation of the “e-government” programme, what they cannot accept is the compulsory use of MyEG and Bestinet services and measures, particularly after the outsourcing measures, the application costs them a higher fee, adding financial burden on them.
The Immigration Department has just adjusted last year the foreign worker permit renewal fee to RM125 and after the services were outsourced to MyEG, RM38 is charged for each application. If 2 million applications are made, MyEG will then earn RM7,600. Meanwhile, Bestinet also intends to charge more than RM200 of electronic visa fee, triggering protests from Indonesian labour groups and Manpower Services Association.
In addition, letting private companies handle permit and visa applications with foreign workers' biometric fingerprint and other confidential information might cause national security concerns if they are misappropriated or stolen by illegal organisations.
Thus, in addition to letting private companies earn much, how could the outsourcing measures benefit the government and the public?
The government must review the outsourcing measures and return the power to handle foreign worker recruitment matters to the Human Resources Ministry, and visa application work to Immigration Department counters.
The Human Resources Ministry has more than 80 service centres nationwide and the huge number of civil servants should also be able to cope with the work.
It is an undeniable fact that the business community of the country has been relying on foreign workers. The root cause of proliferation of illegal foreign workers is the government's flip-flopping foreign worker policies which are also full of drawbacks.
The government has failed to half the number even after a massive mobilisation was made to carry out the 6P illegal immigrant legalisation programme. Illegal foreign workers have become a potential crisis of social problems and if the government still fails to properly handle the issue, it might lead to more serious problems. — Sin Chiew Daily
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
