Chitchat Awaiting Shanmugam FB comment about Bin Cente Consultancy fee of $410k

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

See the last para - consultancy fee $410k, cost to build it $470K. See if he "comes clean" and not give the usual "breezy" comments.

Also note that HDB not monitoring carpark and fees are avoided. Explains why they want to raise the charges despite their negligence.


http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/...htmlSINGAPORE: The Auditor-General's report for Financial Year 2015/2016 was released on Tuesday (Jul 26), and it uncovered instances of inadequate financial controls over Government operations and weak governance.

In a media release, the Auditor-General's Office (AGO) said that, as a whole, it audited the Government Financial Statements - incorporating the accounts of all 16 Government ministries and eight organs of state - and the financial statements of three statutory boards, a Government fund, five Government-owned companies and three other accounts. Selective audits were also carried out on nine statutory boards and three Government funds.

The audit observations in this year's report relate to six ministries, including the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Defence, and six statutory boards such as the Housing and Development Board (HDB) and Nanyang Polytechnic, AGO said.

The Auditor-General observed a number of instances of inadequate financial controls over Government operations, including those outsourced to external operators. There were cases of inadequate controls resulting in loss of revenue to the Government, he added.

For example, the AGO found that HDB did not have adequate oversight of the operations of its car parks at industrial estates and residential estates, which were outsourced to commercial operators.

"There were many instances where vehicles were not charged parking fees and motorists had evaded payment by manipulating the car park system," the AGO report stated. "HDB could have detected these instances if it had examined the data from its car park system and the monthly reports from the operators of the car parks."

He also observed weak governance over the management of public funds in one public sector entity where the "principles of good governance and financial controls were disregarded in several areas".

Other areas of concern noted were inadequate oversight of external entities administering schemes and loans on behalf of the public sector entities, and lapses in the management of contracts including variations, according to the AGO.

For instance, in the audit of the National Arts Council (NAC), the Auditor-General found from its checks of contracts for the Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall Redevelopment project that 47 out of 164 variation works were carried out before approvals were given. The delays in obtaining approval were up to 3.5 years, it added.

"The large number of instances indicated a breakdown in the controls put in place to ensure that variations were properly justified and approved before works commenced," it added.

AGO also found that NAC had paid a consultancy fee of S$410,000 for the construction of a bin centre costing S$470,000. "There was inadequate assessment on the reasonableness of the exceptionally high consultancy fee, at 87.2 per cent of the cost of construction," it said.


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