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PETALING JAYA: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has revealed a series of weaknesses in the government’s management of foreign workers following an investigation.
PAC Chairman Wong Kah Woh said this included the existence of intermediaries, the granting of too many special approvals to circumvent existing regulations and the entry of foreign workers who had not passed their medical examinations.
The investigation followed the auditor general’s findings on the matter in the 2018 Series 1 report. The general secretaries of the ministries of home and human resources and the director general of the Department of Immigration participated in the proceedings of the PAC.
In a statement, Wong said the PAC found that the integration between the ePPAx and MyIMMs systems was not holistic, making it impossible for government agencies to share documents and data completely.
He also said that more special approvals were given to bring in foreign workers than regular approvals.
“This is an unhealthy practice. This practice does not fulfill the original objective of the process of requesting quotas of foreign workers, which is to guarantee a strict selection of those who qualify (to bring in foreign labor) ”.
Wong said the PAC also found that a portion of the special approvals involved subsectors that were not allowed to bring in foreign workers and this affected job opportunities for Malaysians.
He said that 20 police complaints had been filed about theft and misuse of user identification to request false quotas under the MyIMM system, but there were no results of the investigations.
“Incidents in which a system can be breached so easily show clear weaknesses in a security system under the responsibility of a ministry in charge of national security,” he said.
He also highlighted how work permits were issued to foreigners who did not pass their medical exams and the need to improve the condition of immigration warehouses.
Wong said the PAC had made recommendations to the government, including reviewing special approvals for the admission of foreign workers, with approvals granted only when there was merit and for special projects announced by the cabinet.
He also said that no middleman should be involved in such proceedings and urged the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate.
