Gerakan vice president Dr Dominic Lau today disagreed with the government's move to outsource all foreign worker permit renewals to MyEG.
 
“The introduction of online services in public service, including foreign worker permit, road tax and car insurance renewals, is undoubtedly bringing more convenience to the people.
 
“Concurrently, it also cuts red tape and curb corrupt practices. Gerakan is not against MyEG increasing its services, but it should not be monopolising it,” Lau said in a statement today.
 
He also criticised the immigration for claiming that the new system was to eliminate the "middlemen" culture.

In fact, Lau said, the concession for MyEG means that it has become the "biggest middlemen".
 
"Even more worrying is that if the Immigration Department could outsource foreign workers' affairs, then can other departments handling people’s affairs, such as the registration bureau, passport, and medical services also resort to outsourcing.
 
“Apparently the Immigration Department failed to take a lesson from the AES outsourcing by the Ministry of Transport," he said.
 
‘Unreasonable extra costs burden employers’
 
He also labelled the additional RM38 that employers have to pay for the renewals as "unreasonable".
 
"This undoubtedly increases the burden shouldered by employers of foreign workers and the additional cost would eventually be transferred to the consumers, causing rises of prices of goods and eventually affecting the people," he added.
 
He also urged the Immigration Department to explain whether the decision, which includes extra fees of RM58 for employers who want to buy their own insurance for the workers, had gone through public opinion survey and the cabinet.
 
"After all, outsourcing the services that are initially under the government will create multiple problems such as resulting in mistrust towards the government.
 
“The Immigration Department has just increased the foreign workers' processing fee from RM50 to RM125, and now they will have to pay another RM38, which is totally unreasonable," he said.
 
He also urged the Immigration Department to review their decision to close their counter services once MyEG service is made available online, so that the foreign workers employers could choose whether to renew their foreign workers permit online or manually at the service counters.
 
Several opposition politicians, especially from DAP, had already objected to the government's move to outsource the permit renewals to MyEG.