Fomema must be more transparent

I AM sure many in Malaysia’s industries and business sectors were as taken aback as I was upon hearing that Fomema (Foreign Workers’ Medical Examination Monitoring Agency) will require foreign workers to undergo yearly health checks from now on, and that fees for those check ups will increase by between 10% and 14%.

Fomema should be more transparent and announce its decisions in the print media, as widely as possible, and not just on its website, where I saw the notice.

Industries and business entities are the affected parties that bear the higher fees which would increase the cost of doing business. They should have been informed earlier.

Fomema is a concessionaire appointed by the Health Mini-stry (MOH). We expect any change in screening frequencies and their costs to be announced by the MOH, which is the governing body, not by Fomema.

Being a private entity, Fome-ma does not need to publish any reports on its operations and does not need to be publicly audited. This is worrying given that it is the sole organisation appointed by the government in this matter, yet transparency doesn’t seem required of it.

There are two phases of medical screening for foreign workers. They are required to undergo medical screening in their source country before departure; on arriving in Malaysia, they are required to undergo another medical screening at Fomema’s accredited health clinic within 18 days of arrival.

Medical screening by Fomema covers six types of communicable diseases and a dozen noncommunicable diseases. Its main objective is to ensure foreign workers brought into the country are free from communicable diseases.

As such could the screening be confined only to communicable diseases and not the noncommunicable diseases? This would reduce screening costs for Fomema as well as industries.

Otherwise, it appears that foreign workers have the luxury of screening for noncommunicable diseases which many Malaysian citizens cannot enjoy.

It is now appropriate for the MOH to consider increasing the number of concessionaires. The coming influx of 500,000 foreign workers in Malaysia warrants more concessionaires and another ministry to impose stronger and closer oversight on health screening.

Foreign workers make up over 30% of the workforce in the agriculture sector and over 20% in both the manufacturing and construction sectors. To ensure the safety and health of foreign workers, the Human Resources Ministry should be invited to play its part.

WONG SOO KAN

Petaling Jaya