KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 — The Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) today reiterated the 1 Malaysia email accounts project is a private sector initiative — despite a report that the government had invited bids last November for a RM50 million government services internet solution.
Within 15 minutes of the clarification going live on its Twitter account, @etp_roadmap, Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin questioned if the private investment to fund the project was being guaranteed by the government.
The government’s Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu) invited bids for the project last November, according to documents sighted by The Malaysian Insider.
It is understood as many as five companies were invited to pitch for the project by Mampu although it was unclear why the task was given to a civil service unit that manages the public service.
Tricubes Bhd, a company in danger of being delisted from the stock exchange for financial irregularities, in a filing to the Bursa Malaysia on April 4, said it had been awarded the email project by Mampu.
“The Board of Directors of TRICUBES wishes to announce that the Company has on 4 April 2011 accepted the appointment by the Government of Malaysia represented by Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) vide MAMPU’s letter of award dated 29 March 2011 to implement the 1 Malaysia Email Project,” the filing read.
The little-known ACE-listed company triggered Bursa Malaysia Securities’ Guidance Note 3 (GN3), paragraph 2.1(f) last year when auditors “expressed a modified opinion with emphasis on Tricubes’ going concern in the latest audited financial statements for the financial year ended March 31, 2010”, according to a separate filing made by Tricubes on October 29, 2010.
As a GN3 company, Tricubes has to submit and implement a regularisation plan, appoint a sponsor until it is no longer deemed a GN3 company, retain the services of a sponsor for three full financial years after the company is no longer considered a GN3 company and announce the status of its regularisation plan monthly.
Tricubes’ latest filing to Bursa Malaysia on April 1 indicates that it is still in the process of regularising its finances.
In tweets that were sent out between 2pm to 2.05pm today, Pemandu’s Fadhlullah Suhaimi Abdul Malek, director of Communications Content and Infrastructure, Business Services NKEA said “I wish to reiterate that this is a private sector-led initiative by Tricubes. The investment DOES NOT come from the govt.”
The unit headed by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala also said that “this is an alternative secured mode of communication between the govt & the people” whereas “most M’sians use non-secured public emails e.g. yahoo, hotmail, gmail (hosted overseas) in their communications w the govt.”
However, Pemandu did not explain why the government invited bids if it was a private sector initiative or why secured emails were required to communicate with the government.
It also did not explain why a key performance indicator (KPI) of hit 100 per cent take-up by qualified Malaysians was necessary if the project was being executed by the private sector.
Questions posed by The Malaysian Insider on Twitter regarding these issues sent concurrently with Pemandu’s broadcast were unanswered as of 2.55pm.
Questions sent to Pemandu this morning have also not been answered.
Pemandu’s clarification drew an immediate response from Malaysians on Twitter who accused it of not answering the important questions regarding the 1 Malaysia email accounts.
“@etp_roadmap You didn’t answer my ques.Why contract given to a GN3 company? #1malaysiaemail,” tweeted Adrian Ng.
Others also attacked Pemandu for claiming that Gmail was not secure.
“@etp_roadmap Google uses RC4_128 encryption! It is as secured! not non-secured!” said a user known as comeez.
A user known as Pakdi7 said “@etp_roadmap hi doc! How bout Tricubes GN3 status? Are they really competent enough to handle other person data but not their own financial?”
Rembau MP Khairy also tweeted at 2.20pm that he understood “that private investment to fund project BUT is there implicit/explicit govt guarantee?”
He said the two main issues were the “award of project and “Big Brother” concerns. Award done based on standard ETP “open proposal system.”
The hashtag #1malaysiaemail, RM50m and Tricubes are still dominating the top five Malaysian topics on Twitter as of 3pm.