SINGAPORE - When the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore paid out funds to support the aviation sector during the Covid-19 pandemic, it mistakenly paid out $1 million more than it had to.
This is just one of several lapses uncovered by the latest Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) report.
On Thursday, Acting Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat, in a parliamentary written reply to a question from Hougang MP Dennis Tan from the Workers’ Party, said the sum mistakenly given out is likely to be recovered within the next three months. Mr Tan had asked about the likelihood of recovering taxpayers’ money from these firms.
The 98-page AGO report released on July 19 uncovered weak controls and financial lapses at the courts, and eight ministries and statutory boards. Among the agencies flagged for lapses were the People’s Association and the Ministry of Communications and Information. The report also found lapses in the controls for Covid-19 schemes.
The Straits Times looks at three other issues involving government bodies listed in the annual assessment of the nation’s spending.
1. Redemption of SingapoRediscovers Vouchers for the dead
Several people had redeemed SingapoRediscovers Vouchers worth $119,800 for those who were ineligible, like the dead.
It also included redemptions for subsidised child or youth tickets, except that the applicants were not under 18.
The SingapoRediscovers Vouchers scheme was launched in August 2020 to rejuvenate the ailing tourism industry during the pandemic. Under the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) scheme, $100 in vouchers could be redeemed by Singaporeans aged 18 and above to spend on local attractions, hotels, and tours.
The AGO found that $2,600 was dispersed through 35 redemptions using the Singpass accounts of 30 people who were dead at the time of redemption.
Seventeen redemptions were done on the day the person’s death was registered. Another 18 redemptions were made between one day and nearly eight months after the day the Singpass account holder’s death was registered.
STB said four of the redemptions were due to the oversight of SingaporeRediscover Vouchers ambassadors, who did not conduct proper facial verification checks at NRIC scanning counters.
The remaining redemptions were due to delays in deactivating the dead persons’ Singpass accounts, which opened the door for others to misuse their Singpass accounts.
Meanwhile, 5,718 Singaporeans used their vouchers for tickets with subsidies totalling $117,200 for 6,506 people who should not have benefited from the subsidies, as they were not aged below 18.
This included redemptions for 10 people with invalid identification numbers.
STB said the lack of checks to validate the ages of children and youth, due to the short lead time to implement the voucher redemption system, was among the reasons for the lapses.
There were also challenges in implementing effective checks, such as difficulties in verifying the identities of residents through MyInfo, as they did not have Singpass accounts.
2. Wrong contributions deposited by Mindef in servicemen accounts
More than 1,210 cases of incorrect contributions to servicemen’s Saver and Premium Plans were found to have taken place, most of which involved overpayment.
The plans – managed and administered by the Ministry of Defence – support the financial needs of military officers, warrant officers and specialists at different stages of their life and career.
AGO checks on the contributions made to servicemen’s Saver accounts between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2022, found four instances of excess contributions.
They comprised a sum of $405 to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Top-Up Account of two servicemen and excess contributions of $282 to the Retirement Account of another two servicemen.
Mindef said the errors arose from system misconfigurations after a policy change to the plans in July 2021 and that it had earlier rectified incorrect contributions detected by its own checks after the change.
However, the AGO said Mindef did not detect the four cases of wrong contributions, which sparked fears that there could be other cases of wrong contributions.
After the AGO audit, Mindef found another 360 cases of overpayment of contributions to servicemen’s CPF Top-Up Account, amounting to $164,200, and another 853 cases of incorrect contributions to servicemen’s retirement account.
The wrong contributions comprised 809 cases of excess contributions amounting to $90,800 and 44 cases of contributions amounting to $9,400.
Mindef has since taken action to rectify all incorrect contributions and said that there have been no other errors linked to the system misconfigurations, the AGO report said.
3. Inadequate monitoring of agents managing fishery port and wholesale centre
The AGO also found lapses involving agents contracted by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) to manage Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre and Jurong Fishery Port.
Management was outsourced to different managing agents, and they were paid $6.15 million for the period from April 1, 2020 to March 31.
During visits in December 2022 and January, the AGO discovered a slew of lapses. These included 13 cases of unauthorised addition and alteration works, cluttered corridors, blockage of fire equipment and the unauthorised use of 10 out of 21 vacant units test-checked. The report did not specify what the units had been used for.
The AGO said the lapses indicated inadequate contract monitoring by the SFA to ensure that the managing agents had fulfilled their contractual obligations and that the SFA had received the full value of services paid for. It also highlighted the need for the SFA to ensure that its tenants abide by the terms and conditions of their tenancy agreements.
The SFA informed the AGO that it had taken action in April to recover payments from the managing agents for the non-performance of work.
The SFA had also enhanced its contract management regime, stepped up inspections, conducted repair works as well as taken immediate remedial and enforcement actions following the AGO’s audit.
