Strengthening Financial Governance, Procurement Practices and IT Controls across Government and Addressing Recurring Lapses

Parliamentary Question by Mr Saktiandi Supaat:

To ask the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance (a) what systemic measures is the Government taking to strengthen financial governance, procurement practices, and IT controls across Ministries and statutory boards in response to the Auditor-General’s Report FY2024/25; and (b) how will the public be assured that recurring lapses flagged in past audit cycles are being addressed.

Parliamentary Reply by Second Minister for Finance, Ms Indranee Rajah:

The Government takes the Auditor-General's findings seriously and has implemented measures to strengthen financial governance, procurement practices and IT controls. These measures include: 

a. Improving the knowledge and capabilities of public sector officers to better handle financial, procurement and IT control 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. We are also stepping up the training of ICT officers, including on threat modelling and privileged account management, so that they are better equipped to perform their roles.

b. Enhancing IT controls and monitoring. Agencies are expected to regularly assess risks to their systems and implement appropriate mitigating controls. Systems with more significant impact are subject to more stringent requirements on the IT controls that should be in place. Where there are critical gaps or vulnerabilities identified, GovTech guides agencies to put in place more robust safeguards, including stricter access rights validation and tapping on automation to reduce human error in account management. 

In response to all AGO observations both past and present, agencies take steps to identify root causes, rectify gaps and tighten internal controls. Agencies’ internal auditors track the implementation of corrective action, provide independent assessment of the robustness of agencies’ controls, as well as raise issues to be remediated in a timely manner. Areas for improvement are shared across public agencies. We will take onboard the lessons learnt to continually improve our processes, controls and systems, and strengthen responsible management of public resources.