MyEG comes under fire for RM4.4b it will collect directly

DAP’s Teresa Kok says Home Ministry must discontinue new MyEG online application until all nagging questions are satisfactorily answered.

KUALA LUMPUR: DAP National Vice Chairperson Teresa Kok has cautioned the Home Ministry against continuing with the government’s online payments and registration system contractor called MyEG as there are still too many issues left unresolved.

In a statement, the MP for Seputeh attacked MyEG’s insistence that all cheques for the renewal of foreign workers’ permits, be issued directly to them instead of to the “Ketua Pengarah Imigresen Malaysia” as was the procedure in the past.

Posing a question directly to Home Minister Zahid Hamidi, Teresa asked, “Can Zahid explain how long it will take for MyEG to transfer the collection to the government and why should not employers issue cheques to Ketua Pengarah Imigresen?”

The matter was raised in light of the huge sums of money MyEG would be directly accepting with the new ruling.

She explained, “The average rate of levy per worker is RM1,755. Since there are about 2.1 million foreign workers in the country, annual levy collection can come up RM4.4 billion.

Teresa also posed two other questions that she said employers needed satisfactory answers to.

She pointed out that under the new ruling, employers were only allowed to buy insurance from MyEG, failing which, they would face a higher processing fee of RM58 per application.

Asking, “Is this a fair and reasonable move to employers and other insurance companies?”, she also asked point blank, “Why such monopoly for MyEG?”

The MP for Seputeh also questioned the abolishment of manual applications, arguing that many employers were made up of farmers who were not IT savvy. She said, “Allowing only online application will pose a burden to these employers.”

Teresa cautioned, “Until and unless all complaints against and questions associated with online applications … are satisfactorily resolved, (the) Home Ministry must continue with the immigration manual counter application.”