KUALA LUMPUR: Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli has given his assurance that there are no data integrity issues within the Central Database System (Padu) as it is entirely sourced from various government agencies.
Rafizi said concerns raised by certain parties regarding the security of the data collected by the database are unfounded.
"If the data we collected on Padu is considered inaccurate, (that means) all data within the government database from the federal agencies, state governments, and bodies such as zakat are also incorrect because the information comes from them.
"Padu is a way for us to facilitate the government in identifying and reaching those who were previously excluded from rightful assistance," he told the Dewan Rakyat today.
He was responding to a supplementary question from R.Yuneswaran (PH-Segamat) about whether the government was aware of the public's concern regarding Padu's data integrity, which is believed to have contributed to the low registration rate.
He also refuted claims regarding the low registration rate of the database.
"Some have expressed concerns about the registration rate of Padu, with 3.79 million households having already registered as of Feb 25.
"However, we cannot compare the number of registrations of Padu by looking at the total population of 30 million citizens.
"This is because (Padu registration numbers) must be counted by households, not persons. So, it is not accurate to say the registration is low.
"At present, there are 7.9 million households, and that does not include singles or those without families. They are also counted as one household. So the number of households is expected to increase to nine million," he said.
He added that Padu will be essential in integrating the public's data to implement targeted subsidies rather than solely collecting data for government use.
"All this data already exists. We just want them to update it on the database system.
"This is so that there are no questions about why they did not receive government assistance, while those who are more capable receive assistance.
"We will ensure that as many families as possible fully utilise the remaining one-month period to update their information.
"Some may be waiting until the last moment, but it will not disrupt the government's plan that all household information data must be available by March 31.
"This is to enable the government's socio-economic programmes to be implemented, thus transitioning to clean household income."