Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah said in Parliament on Monday (13 Sep) that it will be “unrealistic” to expect zero lapses in the use of public funds, given the scale and complexity of Government operations.
Ms Indranee, also the Second Minister for Finance, was responding to Parliamentary questions by Member of Parliament (MP) for Aljunied GRC Pritam Singh and MP for Yio Chu Kang SMC Yip Hon Weng on recurring lapses uncovered by the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO).
Mr Yip asked about the types of recurring themes for issues flagged out by AGO, the ministries and agencies that have been repeatedly flagged out, as well as the reasons behind the recurrence of these lapses and violations.
“With 150,000 officers in the public service handling hundreds of thousands of transactions each year, and more than 2,000 Government IT systems built over the years by different vendors and using different technologies, human errors and process gaps will occur from time to time,” she argued.
On the recurring lapses, Ms Indranee noted that these lapses have been in the areas of procurement and contracts management, IT controls and grants management, which share common factors like the scale and complexity of operations, a constantly changing operating environment, high volume of transactions and multiple touchpoints.
“What is important therefore is that we must have the means to pick up such lapses and address them in an upfront and transparent manner,” she added.
According to Ms Indranee, in the past five years, six agencies have been mentioned in the AGO report for recurring lapses which are mainly in the areas of procurement, contract management and IT controls.
“These are the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Education (MOE), the Ministry of Finance (MOF), the Ministry of Health (MOH), and the People’s Association (PA).
“The lapses arose from gaps in agencies processors and human factors,” she noted.
Mr Singh asked about the Government’s action with respect to irregularities found in audited documents reported by AGO, where documents were altered, backdated, artificially created and falsified by officers across three Ministries and two statutory boards.
These ministries and statutory boards are: The Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY), MOE, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Housing and Development Board (HDB), and PA.
He also questioned how many investigations have been undertaken arising from these irregularities, the number of individuals involved for each Ministry and statutory boards, as well as the specific actions taken against the officers involved.
In response to Mr Singh’s question, Ms Indranee stressed that the Government takes “a serious view” of irregularities and “every case is thoroughly investigated”.
“Public officers found guilty of misconduct face disciplinary actions depending on the nature, extent and circumstances of the breaches,” she remarked.
Ms Indranee noted that five agencies were highlighted by AGO for possible irregularities in records furnish for audit, with public officers from the MCCY and PA being investigated for the fabrication of records.
Two MCCY officers admitted to fabricating claims records for services rendered by external parties, as the officers could not locate the records when requested by AGO, said the Minister.
“However, the investigation verified that the claims were valid, and services were in fact rendered. So while the claims were real, the conduct of the officers in fabricating the claims records was wrong,” she explained.
That said, the two MCCY officers were issued official warnings and their performance assessments were affected.
As for the PA’s case, Ms Indranee noted that investigations are still ongoing and the officers involved have been suspended from duties, pending the outcomes of the investigations.
She further noted that MHA had three cases of possible irregularities in records furnished by contractors, two of which face police reports and the investigations have been completed. One contractor was charged in court, and the other was given a 12-month conditional warning.
In the third case, Ms Indranee said action was taken against the contractor for non-compliance with contractual requirements.
“There was no fabrication of records by public officers in any of these three cases. However, two officers are undergoing internal investigations for the lack of due diligence,” she noted.
“For the remaining two agencies – MOE and HDB – investigations are ongoing. Appropriate actions will be taken depending on the outcome of the investigation.”
Mr Yip also asked about the actions taken to prevent the recurrence, to which Ms Indranee noted that more central IT infrastructure and common services are being deployed to facilitate regular reviews at the whole-of-government level.
She highlighted that the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group (SNDGG) is also implementing central tools to automate agencies’ review of privileged users’ activities and management of user accounts.
“The former will be implemented for about 800 high priority systems by Dec 2022 and all applicable systems by Dec 2023, while the latter will be implemented for all applicable systems by Dec 2023,” said the Minister.
Ms Indranee pointed out that agencies regularly review and strengthen their own processes and systems to mitigate agency-level risks.
The Government is also strengthening the officers’ capabilities, she said, adding that the Ministry of Finance has established the Finance and Procurement Academy in partnership with the Civil Service College to better equip public officers with relevant competencies.
“We will step up our efforts as the recent audit findings pertain to more complex types of procurement and contract management, particularly in the areas of IT and development projects,” said Ms Indranee.
