Statement by the Ministry of Finance on the Auditor-General’s Report FY2024/25

1   On behalf of public agencies, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) would like to thank the Auditor-General and his officers for the Report of the Auditor-General FY2024/25.

2   The Auditor-General has issued an unmodified audit opinion on the Government Financial Statements. This is an independent verification that the Government’s accounts are prepared, in all material aspects, in accordance with the law and that public funds have been properly accounted for.

3   The Government takes the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO)’s observations seriously. The annual audits by AGO are crucial for maintaining public trust, accountability, and transparency in the management of public monies. Where there are lapses, agencies will review each case thoroughly to identify the root causes and take corrective actions promptly. Good practices and areas for improvement will also be shared across public agencies to enhance governance and performance. The Government will continue to strengthen governance capabilities, processes and systems across public sector agencies, including to leverage technology to do better. 

Overall Audit Observations

4   The FY2024/25 AGO report raised three areas that public agencies need to pay greater attention to.

a) Contract Management and Procurement

The Government remains committed to strengthening procurement and contract management practices across public sector agencies. In response to AGO’s identified lapses, agencies will pay greater attention to weaker areas in procurement and contract management, including by systematically sharing learning lessons across the public service. Agencies have also reviewed and strengthened their internal procurement processes and stepped up training of their officers. These steps will help strengthen procurement evaluations, especially the proper verification of supporting documents prior to payment. We are also improving the knowledge and capabilities of public sector officers to enable them to better handle procurement and contract management tasks in accordance with established policies and procedures. In response to AGO’s findings, we are updating training programmes and other learning resources to better equip officers to identify key risk areas when evaluating or managing contracts.

b) Management of Revenue

There are existing rules for revenue collection and management. Nonetheless, agencies with identified lapses will tighten their processes, take corrective action, and ensure compliance with these rules.

c) Possible Irregularities in Records Furnished for Audit

The Government takes a serious view of the irregularities identified in the records furnished for audit. The agency involved is conducting investigations and will be taking the necessary actions, including referring the case to the Police if there are grounds to do so. We have also reiterated to senior public service and procurement leaders the importance of setting the right leadership tone by scrutinising this area of work carefully. In addition, we have also reminded officers that actions that undermine trust in the integrity and accountability of Government will not be condoned, and that stiff action will be taken should such irregularities take place.

5   AGO also highlighted two other areas for improvement:

a) Access to privileged accounts should be properly managed and monitored to strengthen IT controls.

Since FY24, the Government has enhanced its IT audit approach and designated privileged account management as an area of focus, especially for systems with more significant impact. Agencies were tasked to identify gaps in their security controls over privileged accounts and put in place more robust safeguards. This includes updating their privileged access management frameworks to monitor the additional layers of system access due to greater cloud adoption. The Government will continue to strengthen our IT governance policies and processes, including on privileged account management. We are stepping up targeted training of ICT officers on common areas for improvement. Agencies will also continue efforts to review and tighten their internal processes and guidelines, as well as emphasise the importance of IT policy compliance to all officers.

b) Greater use of data analytics and data sharing among agencies, e.g. for verification checks of applicants when administering Government schemes/programmes, instead of relying solely on applicants’ submissions.

The Government will continue to encourage agencies to make better use of administrative data and data analytics to enhance effectiveness of verification checks in scheme administration. Recent new initiatives include a fraud detection tool that draws on various administrative data sources to support grant evaluation and finance audits, as well as MyInfo which allows individuals to provide the relevant Government-verified data to different agencies when applying for schemes/programmes. We will continue efforts to remind agencies on the responsible use of data, in compliance with the Government Instruction Manual.

Thematic Audit on RIE 2025 Research and Development Grants

6   AGO conducted a thematic audit of Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) 2025 – research and development (R&D) grants managed by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the National Research Foundation (NRF). AGO noted that in general, A*STAR and NRF had in place processes and controls across the various grant stages to ensure proper management of the Funding Initiatives. AGO observed some good practices implemented by both agencies. This included leveraging technology to monitor grants administration and project grants utilisation, as well as standardising processes through templates in grant administration. 

7   AGO highlighted areas to improve on, such as instances where approvals were not sought for deviation from policy, and inadequate segregation of duties and management of conflict of interest. The two agencies acknowledged these audit findings and have reviewed, rectified, and put in place new measures. These include making improvements in their guidelines and processes to better manage risks from potential and perceived conflict of interest in the fund disbursement process, and strengthened mechanisms to ensure sufficient segregation of duties.

8   Central guidance is also provided through the Grants Governance Framework which sets out a consistent set of guidelines and best practices to support grant-giving agencies to strengthen their grants management processes. This framework covers the entire grants lifecycle from grant initiation and design, to grant administration, monitoring and review, with an emphasis on risk management. It addresses requirements such as securing approval for deviations to be duly sought and documented; conflict of interest to be declared, identified and managed throughout the various stages of grants management; and segregation of duties to strengthen controls. We will continue to strengthen the framework to incorporate learning points from AGO’s observations and follow up with agencies to ensure appropriate remediation measures are taken.

Upholding High Standards of Governance and Accountability 

9 The Public Service remains committed to upholding our standards of governance, integrity and accountability, and ensuring continuous improvement. We will continue to improve our processes, controls and systems to strengthen responsible management of public resources. We will take onboard the lessons to ensure compliance, and to better serve Singapore and Singaporeans.