The Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) yesterday (26 Jul) released its report for the financial year 2015/16 on the proper accounting, management and use of public resources. The following irregularities in Government and related agencies were highlighted by the AGO.
Social media has been abuzz since yesterday about the scale of financial lapses found in the Government Ministries. Some netizens in referring to the Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam’s Facebook post, asked if he had a comment about the Government’s lapses which are much bigger in scale.
Mr Shanmugam had said that the KPMG’s latest report on Aljunied-Hougang Town Council painted “a devastating account of the Workers’ Party’s mismanagement of its town council”.
The Ministers in-charge of the various Government agencies would have to respond to the AGO’s damning report when it is submitted to the President and presented in Parliament. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will then deliberate on the report and may call these agencies to account for the lapses where it deems necessary.
Opposition Member of Parliament without a constituency, Leon Perera, is one of the members in the PAC.
While the Singapore Democratic Party has commented on the financial lapses by the public sector entities (http://bit.ly/2atRQxb), the Workers’ Party has not said anything yet.
The lapses cited in the AGO Report are due to non-compliance with established rules, rather than gaps in the rules.