Auditor-Gen: Lapses in contract management, IT, financial controls
Contract management, IT controls and financial controls need to be tightened
The People's Association, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Education were among the government bodies rapped for lapses in contract management, weaknesses in IT controls and laxity in financial controls yesterday.
These findings were highlighted in the annual report by the Auditor-General Office (AGO) for the financial year 2017/2018 released yesterday.
The audit covered all 16 ministries and eight organs of state, five government funds, nine statutory boards, four government-owned companies and three other accounts.
The Ministry of Finance said yesterday that the Government has accepted all the AGO's recommendations and have started rectifying the problems.
FOOD VOUCHERS
Three of the nine grassroots organisations (GROs) under the People's Association have failed to properly document their checks on the eligibility of needy residents whom they were giving assistance to.
A total of 177 people received $4,500 in cash at festive events, but checks on 48 of them were not properly documented.
Other checks also revealed that four GROs did not invalidate food vouchers submitted by hawkers and vendors for reimbursement. There was hence a risk of duplicate claims.
In a statement yesterday, PA said the GROs involved have taken steps to rectify the lapses.
It added: "In disbursing assistance, our GROs have to strike a balance between strong financial controls, flexibility and responsiveness, while upholding the dignity of our residents."
ACCESS RIGHTS
Mindef failed to remove personnel's unneeded access rights to its electronic procurement system (ePS), which can be used to raise purchase requests and view cost and quantity of goods ordered.
In AGO's checks of 219 user roles, it found 41 roles with the associated access rights no longer needed but not removed.
Mindef removed the rights between September last year and January after AGO's queries, when they should have been removed 53 days to more than 10 years earlier.
AGO also found that the system owner of ePS did not review accounts and their associated access rights every six months as required.
LATE PAYMENTS
Lapses in contract management of school development projects under MOE included failing to issue final accounts for 30 construction contracts on time.
This led to late payments of $13.61 million to contractors.
The contractors did not receive the outstanding payment for between four months and more than four years after the last interim payments.
MOE said in a statement that they are working to repay all 14 outstanding contracts by the end of the year.
It added that it has held the consultants accountable and have taken appropriate actions, such as issuing warning letters and rating them poorly under BCA's Consultants' Performance Appraisal System.
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