Fix root causes of lapses in public agencies: Watchdog
Public Accounts Committee urges remedial actions at whole-of-government level and by the govt bodies
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The National Library Board was found to have poorly managed its revamp of the National Archives of Singapore building (above), resulting in the project exceeding its approved cost by $1.72 million. Disciplinary action has been taken against the officers found to be negligent in discharging their duties.
ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
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Parliament's public accounts watchdog has urged the Government to examine the root causes of lapses and weaknesses identified in various public agencies, so that the problems can be fixed across the public sector.
In a report released yesterday, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said: "It is important for agencies to examine and investigate the root causes for the lapses so that appropriate remedial actions can be taken at the whole-of-government level and by the respective public sector agencies."
The committee reviewed the audit of the public sector by the Auditor-General's Office (AGO) for the financial year 2019/2020.
The AGO had highlighted lapses at the National Library Board (NLB), Workforce Singapore (WSG) and Enterprise Singapore (ESG), among others.
The PAC wanted to know if there was a framework in place at the whole-of-government level and within the agencies, to examine the problems and ensure that remedial measures are effective.
To this, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said the departments which oversee the policies, whether on procurement or information technology, for instance, regularly work with government agencies to get to the bottom of lapses identified by systemic audits.
It added that a government-wide review was completed in 2019 to examine lapses on the management of grants, and an inter-agency committee was set up to put in place measures to prevent such mistakes.
MOF had also issued a new framework last July setting out the rules on the management of business grants from start to end, and aims to ensure all agencies have a baseline level of capabilities in this area by the end of financial year 2021.
On the specific lapses identified by the AGO, the PAC had received written responses from the ministries and convened hearings on Dec 17 last year.
NLB was found to have poorly managed its revamp of the National Archives of Singapore building, resulting in the project exceeding its approved cost by $1.72 million. Approvals were given for variations without cost estimates provided, among other things.
The Ministry of Communications and Information, which NLB comes under, told the PAC that disciplinary action has been taken against the officers found to be negligent in discharging their duties.
The NLB has also stepped up briefings on the responsibilities of officers involved in procurement.
The WSG and ESG, meanwhile, had been found to have mismanaged six business grant programmes which disbursed a total of $333.4 million between April 1, 2018 and June 30, 2019.
In some cases, there were double claims and double funding across different WSG grants.
In ESG's case, the funds disbursed for certain grants did not meet guidelines, resulting in excesses or shortfalls. Its officers also had inconsistent practices when assessing companies' eligibility.
The Ministry of Manpower - the parent ministry of WSG - said the WSG has developed a new guide for its professional conversion programme partners to ensure consistency of practices, and these partners will also have to comply with new guidelines from this year.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry, which ESG comes under, said ESG has strengthened checks to ensure programme partners like trade associations and chambers comply with grant conditions.
