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By Goh Chin Lian
SOME government agencies were grossly overcharged for items or services they ordered. Others commissioned and paid for projects that did not meet specifications, or worse, for materials that were never delivered.
In some cases, the bidding for project tenders was carried out with limited competition, without assurance that the agency was getting the best price.
Such financial lapses were highlighted in the latest report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), even as it noted the changes that the agencies have made since to clean up their act.
'The Committee is concerned that this may be a reflection of underlying weaknesses in public sector procurement which need to be addressed on a whole-of-Government level,' it said.
Yesterday, in its report to Parliament, the eight-MP watchdog committee gave details of lapses found in six ministries and their statutory boards, as well as efforts made to improve oversight.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), for instance, was said to have had 'serious lapses in procurement' in the past two years that led to the Singapore Police Force (SPF) being overcharged in projects worth $6.8 million. Hmm, was anyone charged for the audacity of it all?
'These suggest underlying broad-based weaknesses in procurement management in some SPF departments,' said the PAC.
The MHA has since appointed a task force to do a comprehensive review of its financial and procurement functions, due to be completed by July. It has also stepped up training of officers handling projects and procurement, and will do more in-depth audits of high-value projects and contracts.
It has recovered $1.2 million from two Coast Guard projects that were overcharged, though some $700,000 is still outstanding, the PAC reported. The Commercial Affairs Department was also called in on suspicions that a project manager could have submitted falsified documents to the Auditor-General's Office.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, meanwhile, was found to have paid an agent to supply water to ships without having undergone a competitive bidding process since 1986. Fcuk me, tell me this is not true!It is now looking at a plan to license operators to do this job, so they will have to compete in service levels and pricing.
In some cases, agencies were found to have been tardy in paying their bills or recovering debts.
The National Parks Board delayed paying for a park development project in eight instances, exceeding time limits set by a law to address cash-flow problems faced by the construction sector.
In five of the cases, payments totalling $1.65 million were delayed by up to 42 days. The agency said it will put in place a system to track payments and shorten payment processing times.
The Ministry of Defence (Mindef) was slow to recover some $3.03 million in advances given to 358 Singapore Armed Forces personnel who had left the service. It has since asked its external debt-recovery agency to tighten the monitoring of outstanding cases, deploy more people to manage them, and use a central database to track debts.
In another case, however, Mindef was found to have given out too much money, too quickly. It was paying the Defence Science and Technology Agency far more than it needed to spend on its development projects at the time. The overpayments amounted to $333 million on March 31, 2010, the PAC noted.
Mindef now regularly reviews the progress of the projects and makes adjustments every quarter, which led to advance payments falling to below $90 million on Sept 30 last year.
Several agencies were also rapped for weak controls over who gets access to IT systems for such things as government payrolls and traffic offences.
The Ministry of Information, Commnuication and the Arts, the Government's central agency for IT security, will now require public-sector agencies to conduct annual reviews of controls over access to IT systems that have a high impact on business.
One major recommendation by the PAC was to have the Ministry of Finance (MOF) set up a central procurement agency to help smaller ministries and statutory boards that do not have the expertise to manage large projects.
Responding, a ministry spokesman told The Straits Times some agencies already procure contracts centrally for such things as transport and public housing infrastructure. Public agencies can also tap master contracts for IT technology and travel services.
Commenting on the PAC's idea, the spokesman said: 'MOF will consider all options, including further centralisation of procurement, to address the issues raised by PAC.'
SOME government agencies were grossly overcharged for items or services they ordered. Others commissioned and paid for projects that did not meet specifications, or worse, for materials that were never delivered.
In some cases, the bidding for project tenders was carried out with limited competition, without assurance that the agency was getting the best price.
Such financial lapses were highlighted in the latest report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), even as it noted the changes that the agencies have made since to clean up their act.
'The Committee is concerned that this may be a reflection of underlying weaknesses in public sector procurement which need to be addressed on a whole-of-Government level,' it said.
Yesterday, in its report to Parliament, the eight-MP watchdog committee gave details of lapses found in six ministries and their statutory boards, as well as efforts made to improve oversight.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), for instance, was said to have had 'serious lapses in procurement' in the past two years that led to the Singapore Police Force (SPF) being overcharged in projects worth $6.8 million. Hmm, was anyone charged for the audacity of it all?
'These suggest underlying broad-based weaknesses in procurement management in some SPF departments,' said the PAC.
The MHA has since appointed a task force to do a comprehensive review of its financial and procurement functions, due to be completed by July. It has also stepped up training of officers handling projects and procurement, and will do more in-depth audits of high-value projects and contracts.
It has recovered $1.2 million from two Coast Guard projects that were overcharged, though some $700,000 is still outstanding, the PAC reported. The Commercial Affairs Department was also called in on suspicions that a project manager could have submitted falsified documents to the Auditor-General's Office.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, meanwhile, was found to have paid an agent to supply water to ships without having undergone a competitive bidding process since 1986. Fcuk me, tell me this is not true!It is now looking at a plan to license operators to do this job, so they will have to compete in service levels and pricing.
In some cases, agencies were found to have been tardy in paying their bills or recovering debts.
The National Parks Board delayed paying for a park development project in eight instances, exceeding time limits set by a law to address cash-flow problems faced by the construction sector.
In five of the cases, payments totalling $1.65 million were delayed by up to 42 days. The agency said it will put in place a system to track payments and shorten payment processing times.
The Ministry of Defence (Mindef) was slow to recover some $3.03 million in advances given to 358 Singapore Armed Forces personnel who had left the service. It has since asked its external debt-recovery agency to tighten the monitoring of outstanding cases, deploy more people to manage them, and use a central database to track debts.
In another case, however, Mindef was found to have given out too much money, too quickly. It was paying the Defence Science and Technology Agency far more than it needed to spend on its development projects at the time. The overpayments amounted to $333 million on March 31, 2010, the PAC noted.
Mindef now regularly reviews the progress of the projects and makes adjustments every quarter, which led to advance payments falling to below $90 million on Sept 30 last year.
Several agencies were also rapped for weak controls over who gets access to IT systems for such things as government payrolls and traffic offences.
The Ministry of Information, Commnuication and the Arts, the Government's central agency for IT security, will now require public-sector agencies to conduct annual reviews of controls over access to IT systems that have a high impact on business.
One major recommendation by the PAC was to have the Ministry of Finance (MOF) set up a central procurement agency to help smaller ministries and statutory boards that do not have the expertise to manage large projects.
Responding, a ministry spokesman told The Straits Times some agencies already procure contracts centrally for such things as transport and public housing infrastructure. Public agencies can also tap master contracts for IT technology and travel services.
Commenting on the PAC's idea, the spokesman said: 'MOF will consider all options, including further centralisation of procurement, to address the issues raised by PAC.'
