What did Singaporeans’ Say:
Sebastian Low To those haters out there:
1) When public monies are accounted for you say it’s inaccurate/ not reliable/ inside job.
2) When public monies are unaccounted for you say corruption / non – compliance / no accountability.
Then what the hell you want to hear and see? See Singapore in shambles and in the wrong hands then happy??· 282 Likes
Wilkie Ong Keng Soon That is the spirit of LKY that he started 50 years ago. If we cannot trust this govt, we shouldn’t stay on in Singapore and should fly off to elsewhere for good.· 103 · Likes
Ahmed Naseer I think Singapore is the one and only country who have such clean audit report of the people’s money · 13 Likes
Kan Cheong Joey Haiz now left with only one town council very messy and unaccountable , which is still in red ….. See other within a year or less everything solve …. Only one place 5 year from normal standing good order to so mess up …… never improve and yet from good to worst till so mess up…… Wp what you all doing ????? In my heart hope every Singaporean can use eye and heart to see and feel which I feel wp is not ready to be a gov or person in charge in any place of Singapore .. So heart pain as a Singaporean That wp mess up my home SINGAPORE
Genevieve Lim Hautier We are in good hand, in Europe, corruption is root cause of the problematic Euro, greed to get into the Euro region cause so much financial headache now. Cause a lending bank to bankrupt a country, Iceland, luckily return to a better shape now from Norway, not a EU country. Here in Switzerland would never get in the Euro region. Count your blessing we are not up north the causeway. Thanks.
Lim Chee Ming I have 110% confidence for our Auditor-General’s Office.
We have a good governing system in place and when we say, although we are not the best, at least second best majority countries in the world would agree to this statement.
Lawrence Loh Singaporean should be glad that we have a clean government
Chai Kath Look at our neighbours and their currency rate against SGD. That explains all
Alvin Chickenwing This is the government Mr Lee had given us and bringing us to what we ( Singapore) is today. Steady growth, Safe, Prosperous and Respected by many others countries. If you wants to debate about this Party of anything, show me strong evidence of any country if there’s a party holding on for so long without corruption and problems.
I’m just primary school educated, if I write something wrong or might even provoked or hurt your feelings, I’m sorry for that. I’m just speaking out the truth from my heart and truth is always hurting. God bless your day
Wl Oh In every story there are two side of supporters, be it good or bad. we want a better Singapore for singaporeans. cheer smile emoticon
Teo Ricky SINGAPORE is a corruption free country, those people who create unnecessary trouble must be foreigner who r jealous of our great achievement.
Raymond Goh Well done Singapore.. Well done PAP… This is what we call integrity..
Chan Juli Deborah PAP , your transparency , accountability , integrity , honesty , steadfastness , consistency , lawfulness , reliability , calibre ..n etcs make u a formidable party that the oppositions are most difficult to keep up with and dreadful of …
Vivian Kasenda Singaporean in Singapore needs to learn to be more grateful.
News Report From CNA
AGO found Govt’s financial accounts reliable, public’s money ‘fully accounted for’: Tharman
Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugatnam responds to questions in Parliament on the AGO’s report which had found several lapses in public sector entities.
- POSTED: 18 Aug 2015 00:20
- UPDATED: 18 Aug 2015 01:10
SINGAPORE: The latest report by the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) found the Government’s financial accounts reliable and the public’s money “fully accounted for, and in safe hands”, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam in Parliament on Monday (Aug 17).
He was responding to questions from Members of Parliament on last month’s AGO reportwhich had found several lapses in public sector entities. The lapses flagged involved the administration of grants, management of procurement or revenue contracts, management of contract variations and related-party transactions.
Mr Tharman explained that there are two types of audits conducted annually by the AGO. The first is a financial statements audit. The AGO checks if the Government financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the law and the audit covers the accounts of all public sector agencies.
The second type of audit is a selective audit which conducts checks on selected individual public agencies for compliance with rules and procedures, and also on internal controls. The AGO does these selective audits on a selection of agencies every year.
Mr Tharman said that for the Government financial statements, the AGO has given an “unmodified audit opinion”. This is the same as in in previous years.
“That is to say, the Government financial statements, containing accounts of the ministries, departments and organs of state, are reliable, and public funds are properly accounted for. The same is true for the statutory boards, all of which received an unmodified audit opinion from their respective auditors for the Financial Year 2014/15,” he stated.
Mr Tharman said all the public sector agencies highlighted in the AGO report have conducted their own investigations into the lapses and that except for one audit finding, concerning an agency’s procurement of event management services, all the other audit findings in this year’s AGO report were not repeat lapses.
Mr Tharman said each agency takes every lapse seriously, and ensures improvements are made promptly. All of AGO’s audit findings are looked into by the heads of the respective agencies.
In the case of ministries, this is the Permanent Secretary. Any suspicion of corruption or fraud is referred promptly to the Police, and investigated thoroughly.
As for statutory boards, their audit findings and any further investigations are reviewed by their respective supervising ministries.
In terms of this year’s report, Mr Tharman said that where lapses were found, steps have been taken to improve procedures and oversight. This includes closer monitoring by supervisors and internal auditors, improved internal guidelines for officers, enhanced IT systems to enable better tracking, and developing fund administration guidelines for management of programme vendors.
Officers responsible for the lapses were taken to task. “Except for one case in the latest AGO findings which has been referred to the police for further investigation, all the other cases were due to administrative or procedural lapses,” said Mr Tharman. “These were mainly due to a lack of knowledge, carelessness or poor supervision. But even where there is no evidence of fraud or corrupt intent, an officer may face serious disciplinary action, such as having his salary increment withheld and being debarred from promotion for a few years.”
The Deputy Prime Minister said any AGO audit must be expected to turn up some lapses and oversights. He said that even with the best systems in place, human lapses will occur. The key is in maintaining a “sensible balance of rules” that do not weigh down the system, and to take the necessary actions when lapses do occur.
The Singapore Government ranked third globally, and came in tops in Asia, in the 2013-2014 Global Competitiveness Report for the least corruption in the economy. Mr Tharman said this could be attributed to clear and strict laws imposed by the government on all business dealings and transactions.
