Possible falsification in PUB documents among lapses flagged by AGO

Case is one of the 25 more significant lapses found in annual audit of govt agencies

- Tham Yuen-C

Singapore's public accounts watchdog has flagged lapses and irregularities in its annual audit of government ministries and agencies, including instances where contract documents were altered to give the impression that required checks had been carried out.

One case of falsified documents involved a PUB contract, valued at $7.95 million, to supply biocide for midge control, said the Auditor-General's Office (AGO) in its report for the 2024 to 2025 financial year.

Under the contract, the contractor had to provide certificates of analysis from an accredited laboratory to show that the biocide met required specifications.

The AGO found tell-tale signs of possible irregularities in the soft copy of all six certificates that the national water agency submitted for audit.

These problematic soft copies had different version numbers, formatting and information from the original hard copies provided by the contractor, and "sought to give the false impression that checks on the active ingredient level had been performed... and that PUB had accepted goods that met its contractual requirements", said the AGO in its report released on Sept 9.

"Such actions cast doubt on the authenticity of the other documents furnished for audit, and impede the work of AGO," the watchdog said.

In a statement, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said PUB has launched an internal investigation into the matter, and "will be taking the necessary actions, including referring the case to the police if there are grounds to do so".

PUB separately said disciplinary actions have been taken against the officers involved, without elaborating.

The agency also said it had conducted thorough checks and confirmed the quality of the stocks it received earlier. It added that it has quality control processes in place, like testing by accredited laboratories.