23/07/2021

Auditor-General's Report 2020/2021

Auditor-General's Office report: Overpayments, altered records among some lapses found

The Auditor-General's Office (AGO) released its report on Thursday (July 22) highlighting key lapses by various ministries and public agencies. Here is a summary of its findings:
  • Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) - The AGO found that some records could have been photocopies with alterations made to the dates and duration of services rendered while others had pre-printed signatures or showed other signs of weak controls.
  • Ministry of Defence (Mindef) - Mindef overpaid 323 bills totalling $84,300 to a national healthcare institution between September 2019 and March 2021.
  • Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) - The AGO noted that improvements were needed in MOE's and MHA's management of facility management contracts.
  • National Library Board (NLB) - The AGO found various lapses in NLB's procurement of a digital film projection system worth $4.75 million. There was inadequate assurance that principles of value for money, fairness and transparency had been adhered to, AGO said.
  • Singapore Polytechnic (SP) - SP did not put up required reports to the central government authority concerning two tenderers who had withdrawn their bids after the close of tenders, but before the tenders were awarded.
  • Accounting and Corporate Reg.ulatory Authority (Acra) - The AGO flagged weak controls over the operating system (OS) user accounts with the highest system access privileges in Acra's online filing and information retrieval system, BizFile
  • Health Promotion Board (HPB) - About 341,000 fitness trackers not put to use for the HPB's National Steps Challenge resulted in $5.39 million of public funds being wasted.
  • Health Sciences Authority (HSA) - HSA's total expenditure on small value purchases between April 2018 and June 2020 was substantial at $8.02 million.
  • Housing Board (HDB) - Housing grants totalling $405,000 were disbursed to ineligible applicants. The AGO also found that quotations for some items could have been created or altered to give the impression that they were obtained from other suppliers.
  • Land Transport Authority (LTA) - The AGO found 36 instances where LTA had delayed refunding advance payments to individuals or companies that requested works such as shifting of streetlights or bus shelters.
  • Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) - Following a complaint, the AGO conducted checks on a $430,000 tender for event and venue management services for a 2018 MPA event and found several lapses, including significant errors in the tender evaluation report.

Report of the Auditor-General for the Financial Year 2020/21

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