SINGAPORE’S national auditor has flagged several public agencies for lapses, including the improper handling of money, in its latest annual audit of the government’s accounts.

In a report released by the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) on Wednesday (Jul 19), the People’s Association (PA) was found to have lapses in the evaluation and award of three tenders, as well as “inappropriate money management practices” for welfare assistance schemes at two grassroots organisations.

Significant sums were transferred to the personal bank accounts of staff for cash distribution at festive events and to reimburse hawkers and merchants under a voucher assistance scheme.

Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore disbursed an excess of S$1 million in grants due to inadequate checks or claims made by companies.

They were among the 16 government ministries, eight organs of state, four government funds, eight statutory boards, four government-owned companies and two other accounts that were audited.

Among the agencies singled out in the report were the Public Service Division (PSD), the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI), the Ministry of Defence (Mindef), the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) and the State Courts.

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AGO found lapses in procurement and contract management at PA, MCI, Mindef and SFA.

For PA, there were lapses in the evaluation and award of three tenders. Three grassroots organisations also awarded or renewed contracts with two debarred contractors in the period they were banned.

Responding to AGO’s report, PA said it has set up a committee to review the Auditor-General’s findings together with the management’s existing and planned remedies. It will also recommend further interventions that address system risks to its board.

MCI mistakenly appointed five out of 108 tenderers to its panel for the second whole-of-government period contract and framework agreement on creative services. The five tenderers should not have been appointed as they did not meet evaluation criteria, AGO noted.

A failure to use the correct index in computing the annual costs adjustment of services received under a vehicle maintenance contract resulted in Mindef overpaying by around S$480,000.

PSD, which falls under the Prime Minister’s Office, was also flagged for weak controls surrounding its human resource and payroll system, specifically its most privileged operating system and database accounts. Excessive access rights were given to IT vendor staff when it came to encryption and modifying or deleting data files. (*see amendment note)

AGO also noted possible irregularities in quotations for SFA and the State Courts. Both agencies have lodged police reports, they said in their separate statements addressing the matter.

AGO also conducted a thematic audit of selected Covid-19-related grants managed by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).

These are the Jobs Support Scheme (JSS); the Rental Relief Framework (Rental Cash Grant), or the RCG; the Rental Support Scheme (RSS); and the SingapoRediscovers Vouchers (SRV) scheme.

AGO found inadequate controls in ensuring SRV grants were not disbursed to those who were ineligible and that only eligible merchants and products were onboarded to the scheme. (*see amendment note)

STB said in a statement that while it had implemented checks to prevent abuse and detect wrongdoing, it also recognised that some of the processes “could have been more stringent”. The statutory board plans to make better use of technology and digital tools when launching new schemes to document evaluation findings better and record eligibility checks.

When it came to the JSS, RCG and RSS, AGO found no documentary evidence of approval on risk assessments for the RCG.

A lapse concerning the configuration of system rules led to the disbursement of nearly S$3.6 million to 12 entities that were found to be not eligible for the RCG grants. (*see amendment note)

In a statement, the Ministry of Finance and Iras acknowledged that there is scope for improving its documentation of processes and risk assessments. Although documentation was incomplete due to time constraints and fast-moving developments, both parties affirmed that each decision was “duly deliberated”.

It also confirmed that the total amount of recoveries needed after re-assessment made up less than 0.5 per cent of total payouts for the JSS, RCG and RSS.

*Amendment note: This article has been amended to clarify that PSD’s lapses were specific to its human resource and payroll system.

The previous story had also stated that the AGO found inadequate controls in ensuring SRV grants were disbursed to those who were eligible, when it is in fact, for those who were ineligible.

The story has also been corrected to reflect that the lapse that resulted in S$3.6 million being disbursed to 12 entities was for RCG grants only and not both RSS and RCG grants.