The Auditor-General's Office (AGO) on Wednesday, July 15, 2015, has flagged multiple lapses at government bodies in its annual report for 2014/15 financial year.

You can find the 72-page AGO report here.

Here are the main highlights:

1. National Library Board

NLB procured electronic resources from specific vendors and even renewed an e-resource twice when it should have been terminated.

At the AGO’s recommendation, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) has referred the matter to the police for further investigations and the police are looking into possible wrongdoings in relation to NLB's procurement.

From Today:

The report, which covers the 2014/15 financial year, found that NLB had weak controls in its procurement of electronic resources, after spending about S$7.30 million in FY2012/13 to acquire and maintain its e-resources collection.

For instance, the AGO noted that NLB had procured electronic resources directly from specific vendors without any evidence of having considered other e-resources of similar nature, and did not have a robust system to verify vendors were sole distributors.

From The Straits Times:

Its subscription to a e-resource was also renewed twice, even though its evaluators had recommended termination, and NLB's own guidelines found usage too low to justify renewing.

2. People's Association

Major conflict of interest found in one of the Citizens' Consultative Committees (CCCs), as one of its chairman's failed to declare his affiliation with two entities.

MP for Sembawang GRC Khaw Boon Wan said the grassroots leader in question was from Admiralty CCC and that he has stepped down to facilitate a full investigation.

From Channel News Asia:

The AGO's checks found that the chairman of a CCC was involved in approving the award of two contracts worth a total of S$32,000 and corresponding payments to a company of which he was a member of the senior management. For one of the awards, another CCC member involved in the approval process was both a director and shareholder of the company, the AGO said.

The CCC chairman also approved payment for a purchase worth S$1,500 from another company where he was both a director and shareholder.

[...]

Test-checks revealed seven instances where the CCC chairman was involved in approving his own claims, totalling S$114,767 - a "clear conflict of roles", the AGO said. In three of these payments, no supporting documents were available.

PA has responded almost immediately within minutes of the AGO findings with a statement of their own.

3. Gardens By The Bay

A project worth millions of dollars was open to only one bidder and services by one consultant commenced even before the approval of the tender.

From The Straits Times:

Checks by the AGO also found that managers of the $1 billion Gardens by the Bay project had awarded over $20 million of contracts through a waiver of competition, without compelling reasons.

NParks cited a tight timeline as the main reason for the waiver, but there was no evidence that the tight timeline was caused by unforeseen events, said the AGO.

From Channel News Asia:

One consultant was allowed to commence services before approval was obtained to call a tender in which only that consultant was invited to bid, for a project with a contract value of S$2.37 million, said the AGO. "By doing so, NParks had prematurely communicated to the consultant that it had intended to award the contract to the consultant."

NParks said it did so as it faced a tight timeline, and acknowledged that it should have highlighted to relevant authorities that more time was needed, and called an open tender instead.

The AGO also found that three consultancy services contracts with an estimated total value of S$20.77 million was awarded via waiver of competition, but without compelling reasons. Again, the tight timeline was cited, though no evidence was found to show this.

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