Forum: MOF should set up panel to find root cause of Acra’s portal glitches

I refer to the article “Acra waives late filing penalties till March 15, while it rectifies issues with its new portal” (Feb 17) which highlighted the prolonged disruptions caused by the roll-out of the new Bizfile system on Dec 9, 2024.

More than two months after its roll-out and based on the issues that are faced by users, it is evident that user acceptance testing was either not conducted or inadequately performed and there is a lack of supervisory oversight in allowing a flawed system to go live.

Beyond access issues, of paramount concern is that the system has also displayed wrong information, further eroding confidence in its reliability, which has serious implications for businesses that rely on accurate corporate records for compliance and transactions.

While the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) has extended penalty waivers several times, this does not undo the financial and operational difficulties businesses continue to face.

Instead, it highlights Acra’s failure in enabling and facilitating public compliance. The repeated extensions of penalty waivers raise questions. Are there more serious issues with the system that haven’t been addressed?

The Ministry of Finance (MOF), which oversees Acra, should form a committee to investigate this incident – not only for accountability, but also to determine the root cause of how such a significant failure on Acra’s part occurred. 

Understanding these failures is crucial to ensure similar mistakes do not happen again – not just by Acra, but also across other government agencies – when upgrading and rolling out systems for the public to use. This is especially so, as online transactions become the default mode of interaction with government agencies.

Tan Swee Leng