PUB officer who falsified documents for $7.95M contract formally reprimanded

A PUB officer who falsified documents involving a contract of the national water agency has been issued a formal reprimand and will have his or her performance grade downgraded, said Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu in Parliament on Sept 22.

She was responding to questions on lapses and irregularities discovered in PUB contracts, which were highlighted in the Auditor-General's Office (AGO)'s annual audit of government ministries and agencies released on Sept 9.

The contracts include one valued at $7.95 million, to supply biocide for midge control, and a $6.75 million contract for waterscape works.

Speaking about the biocide contract, Ms Fu said that PUB has completed its internal investigation and found the case of documentation falsification to be the fault of an individual officer.

She said that the documents were altered to include required information which had been omitted. She added that the alterations were done to "cover up the incompleteness of the original documents to be provided to the AGO auditors", but pointed out that the contents were factual.

Under the contract, the contractor had to provide certificates of analysis from an accredited laboratory to show that the biocide met required specifications. The AGO found signs of possible irregularities in the soft copy of all six certificates that PUB had submitted for audit.

These problematic soft copies had different version numbers, formatting and information from the original hard copies provided by the contractor, and "sought to give the false impression that checks on the active ingredient level had been performed... and that PUB had accepted goods that met its contractual requirements", the AGO said in its report.

Responding to MP Shawn Loh's (Jalan Besar GRC) question on whether PUB would treat a lack of integrity more seriously than human error, Ms Fu stressed that the lapses were due to lack of judgement rather than lack of integrity.

"There was an error of judgment (on) the staff's part to use a way of alteration to provide the information that is required by AGO. There wasn't any suffering in terms of financial or other issues or operational issues that the agency has received," she said.

As for the waterscape works contract, the AGO had found irregularities in the quotations provided for 23 "star rate items" with a total value of $148,900.

PUB had reported the matter to the police to investigate if there were any fraudulent practices involved, Ms Fu said.

It has also conducted a thorough review of similar contracts and did not find such irregularities, and will follow up with disciplinary action if there is any wrongdoing, she added.

The AGO had also found PUB's maintenance contracts for water quality analysers at private sector plants to be poorly managed. Addressing this, Ms Fu said that the agency had already been working on addressing the gap before the AGO audit.

PUB has since used other contracts to cover the scope of work and installed water quality analysers as additional precautionary checks over and above the analysers installed by the private sector operators, she said.

"I would like to assure the House that PUB has instituted adequate checks to ensure the delivery of clean water that is safe to drink," she said.

Separately, six PUB officers were found responsible for lapses in management of biocide and chemical supply contracts and have faced disciplinary action. Individual officers had not been diligent in carrying out checks; and there was inadequate supervision to enforce the requirements stipulated under the contracts, including verification of documents submitted by the contractors.

To strengthen its processes, Ms Fu said that PUB has increased the scope of its internal audits on procurement and contract management, including using AI to improve checks on contractual requirements and detect fraud, as well as additional checks on star rates in contract variations.

PUB has tightened its standard operating procedures for contract management to ensure alignment with contractual requirements, as well as procedures for checks on the quality of the stocks used in its operations.

It will also take appropriate action against contractors who fail to meet their obligations, she added.

"Where feasible, (PUB) is automating processes to reduce reliance on manual monitoring and the risk of human error," she said.

Responding to MP Nadia Samdin (Ang Mo Kio GRC)'s question on whether the speed and progress of projects under these contracts will be impacted, Ms Fu said that PUB does not want to compromise on the speed of implementation and that the AGO audit has given the agency "many good lessons".