SINGAPORE: The Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) upon Wednesday (Jul 20) highlighted instances of insufficient controls and inspections by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Wellness Promotion Board (HPB) and Singapore Land Authority (SLA) regarding COVID-19-related procurement and expenditure.
These places for improvement were flagged in the AGO’s audit report of public agencies within Singapore for the calendar year 2021/2022, which furthermore highlighted that MOM, HPB and SLA had implemented a number of good practices in order to facilitate timely reactions to the emergency circumstance and to reduce costs for that Government.
The particular audit covered most 16 Government ministries and eight organs of state, along with three statutory planks, four government-owned companies and two various other accounts.
The AGO has issued unmodified audit opinions on these financial statements.
“This is an independent verification how the Government’s accounts have decided in accordance with the law and provide a true and reasonable view of its general financial position, ” stated the Ministry of Finance (MOF) in a separate statement.
AGO added that it also performed selective audits associated with four statutory boards and three Federal government funds whose economic statements were not audited by AGO. Selective audits involve check checks on selected areas for economic irregularity, excess, luxury, or gross inefficiency leading to waste.
COVID-19 PROCUREMENT, EXPENDITURE
A thematic audit on chosen pandemic-related procurement plus expenditure at MOM, HPB and SLA showed that they incurred a total of S$1. 51 billion upon spending related to manpower services, accommodation amenities and meal providing during the audit period from January 2020 to March 2021.
BACK noted that the three authorities “generally had in place” processes and controls across the four stages associated with procurement and contract management: Planning plus establishing needs, procurement and contracting, controlling contracts, as well as the drawing a line under or renewal associated with contracts.
“Nonetheless, there were locations where controls could be improved, ” added BACK in its audit observations.
The observations included lapses in the evaluation of contractors’ proposals and evaluation of price reasonableness, as well as discrepancies and omissions in submissions to the approving power for contract honor.
In addition to gaps in obtaining approvals for contract awards, there were also weak points in payment procedures such as inadequate investigations on the validity of payments, discrepancies within payment claims and also a lack of supporting files for payments.
AGO also directed to a need for MOTHER, HPB and SLA to improve on the documentation of assessments.
The Finance Ministry said the mind of the agencies worried have reviewed each case to identify the root cause for the lapses and that they are taking steps to enhance their capabilities, procedures and systems.
“The appropriate agencies have initiated remedial steps, for example to recover excess funds disbursed and strengthen the management of contracts. We will also continue to share great practices to improve requirements in public agencies, inch it added.
MOF noted that this COVID-19 pandemic has been an “extraordinary period” for Singapore and it is public officers.
“Public organizations were agile in shifting from their pre-pandemic roles to brand new emergency roles and had to scale up their operations considerably and swiftly, ” said the ministry.
This includes HPB increasing the number of swab personnel, SLA controlling premises that were used as COVID-19 amenities and MOM assisting the management of dormitories and the well-being of migrant employees.
“The Auditor-General’s Report observed that SLA, MOTHER and HPB got in place the necessary policies and processes. Great practices were pointed out, including structured procedures for managing turmoil of interest, contractor debarment checks, periodic testimonials of contracts according to changing requirements plus measures to reduce general expenditure, ” mentioned MOF.
“Areas for improvement were also identified, which includes how the agencies could have done better within the evaluation of proposals, obtaining relevant approvals for contracts plus implementing payment procedures. ”
“The Public Service is going to take on board the lessons learnt, and enhance our preparedness meant for future emergencies, ” added the Financial Ministry.