It has come to my attention that the supply of MyKads to the Ministry of Home Affairs will expire in December 2019. A tender for the new contract is expected to be called in Sep / Oct 2018 in order to give ample time for evaluation and a proof-of-concept exercise to be undertaken.
Companies intending to participate in the tender must be registered with ePerolehan under the Ministry of Finance (MOF) with the code 221607 (Cetakan Keselamatan), which has a condition of 100% Bumiputra ownership. It is believed that the code 221607 was created by Najib’s cabinet to allow only one qualifying crony company to bid for the lucrative contract.
The current vendor, Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd. registered with MOF for 221607 although being a wholly owned subsidiary of Datasonic Group Bhd, a public listed company, it would not have 100% Bumiputera ownership.
I would like to call upon the Government to remove the 100% Bumiputra ownership requirement, and allow all companies to bid for the tender. The MyKad is held by all Malaysians above age 21. It has a very wide reach, and deserves the best in terms of technology, utilitisation via applications, durability and security. MOF approved vendors with the code 221607 may not be able to cover all aspects of it, and may have to sub-con certain component developments to other firms. Opening the tender to all will allow bigger and more experienced companies to provide their services at a lower cost.