Malaysian firm milking expats

A recent government report shows rampant irregularities, bribery, illegal money transactions, and mismanagement by a Malaysian company are delaying the issuance of Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) to Bangladeshi expatriates in Malaysia.

The report also said the company, Bitara Abadi Sdn, was incompetent and inexperienced in dealing with the work related to MRPs. The report was prepared by a senior Bangladesh government official.

It accused Bitara, a sub-contractor of Malaysian outsourcing company IRIS Corporation Berhad, of exploiting Bangladeshi workers there by charging extra for the MRP application forms and taking bribes in the every step of the way.

Identifying Bitara's chief Shafi as the key to the irregularities and corruption, the report recommended removing him from the contract.

“Illegal monetary demand of Shafi-Malay group from poor Bangladeshi [MRP] applicants are increasing day by day,” said the report prepared by Bangladesh Navy Captain M Arshad Kabir, who had worked as a senior government official in Malaysia for three months to assist the MRP issuance project.

Submitting the report to different government departments, including the Department of Immigration and Passport (DIP) on July 21, he said the Malaysian company was exploiting the migrant workers in the name of enrolment.

The Daily Star has a copy of the report.

Shafi and his employees were in full control of the eight application receiving centres (ARCs). They were charging extra, between Malaysian Ringgit 35 and 50, equivalent to Tk 650 and Tk 2,950, just for the enrolment of migrant workers, the report shows.

The staff of the ARCs, especially in Klang, Ipoh and Malacca, were found involved in taking bribes from applicants. 

The MRP applicants had to give ARCs staff RM 50 to 250 only for submitting the application, RM 35 to RM 150 for any corrections, RM 10 to 20 for finger prints, RM 20 for MRP delivery, and RM 50 for showing online visa. Migrants had to pay RM 400 to 500 for pending cases as well.

The applicants are supposed to pay a prescribed government fee of only $18 or about Tk 1,400 for the MRP.

In each ARC, there was an assigned staff for collecting the illegal money and depositing it to a bank. At least 70 percent of the money went to top officials of Bitara, including Shafi, while the rest was shared among the lower-level officials, the report said.

It found that there had been no check and balance on money deposited to the government account.

Bitara had been failing to show progress in MRP enrolments as Shafi terminated many experienced employees and recruited inexperienced staff keeping the Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP) in the dark, the report said.

The Malaysian company was also accused of not cooperating with the government officials sent there to assist and supervise.

The report said that the ARCs were in inconvenient locations for the workers. The report also identified inadequate number of mobile teams, and interference by brokers for the failure of the company.

It recommended taking stern actions against the people involved in illegal money transactions and ensuring administrative authority of government officials in the ARCs.

Former expatriates' welfare and overseas employment minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, who visited Malaysia last June, also found evidence of irregularities and corruption by the company.

Director General of DIP NM Zeaul Alam, who had regularly received such complaints against IRIS and Bitara but had not taken any meaningful steps, said they asked the company to respond to the allegations made in the report.

He said action would be taken after getting the company's explanation.

When The Daily Star wanted to know when the company was asked for the explanation and the deadline for the company's answer, Mr. Alam said he did not remember the dates.

Contacted, MRP Project Director Brig Gen Masud Rezwan said, “It is not my duty to look after the outsourcing jobs abroad. I only oversee MRP project inside Bangladesh.”

Around seven lakh Bangladeshis are working in different sectors in Malaysia. But only around 1.5 lakh migrants had received the MRP until July 30.

The rest still have the old passports, which would be unusable after November 24, when the ICAO deadline ends.