Auditor-General’s audit: Financial and IT lapses found in government agencies
The Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) discovered lapses in several government ministries and agencies pertaining to financial controls, oversight of large-scale projects and weaknesses in information technology (IT) controls.
In the Auditor-General’s report for financial year 2016/17, AGO said it found “irregularities” in the contract management for the development of the Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, with the Ministry of Health (MOH) incurring about $4.08 million for site supervision staff engaged by its agent “without verifying the need for and reasonableness of the expenditure”.
“In addition, MOH made payments to the agent for the site staff based solely on the agent’s claims and without any contractual agreement,” said AGO in the report released on Tuesday (18 July).
The agent also did not adhere to proper approval procedures on contract variations and this condition was breached for the majority of such variations totalling $30.09 million, AGO said.
In response, MOH said it would work to strengthen its project oversight and management capabilities. “There were no indications of fraud or corrupt practices which warrant further investigation, or deliberate wrongdoing by the persons involved in the projects,” MOH added.
On eight projects administered by the Economic Development Board, the AGO said “inaccurate and incomplete information” was given to the approving authorities, which resulted in approved grant disbursements totalling $2.59 million. “The role of approving authorities must not be regarded as perfunctory,” AGO added.
The Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises (SCORE) was also found wanting in its financial controls. Ten contracts totalling almost $50 million – each valued at between $1.04 million and $15.88 million – were approved by an officer who was only authorised to sign contracts of up to $1 million.
IT lapses in agencies
According to AGO, weakness in IT controls were found in the audits of some government agencies, namely the Central Provident Fund Board (CPFB), the Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises (SCORE), the National Parks Board (NParks) and the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF).
The weaknesses included “inadequate review of activities in IT systems, wrongful use of privileged accounts by officers or appointed vendors and lack of review of user access rights,” said AGO.
CPFB said in response that no unauthorised activities or transactions were made to CPF members’ databases due to these lapses.
