Hansard, Tuesday, 20 November 2018

Wide-ranging Review by Taskforce on Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families 1 Ms Rahayu Mahzam asked the Minister for Education whether the interagency task force on Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families will be looking at issues affecting older children other than preschool children, and youths in their review of the support in place for students from disadvantaged families.

Wide-ranging Review by Taskforce on Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families Minister Indranee, would you like to take Question No 31 as well, while you are on your feet? They look very similar.

Wide-ranging Review by Taskforce on Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families Yes. We have set up Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families Taskforce (UPLIFT) to find ways to better support students from disadvantaged homes, especially those who are underperforming in our schools.

Wide-ranging Review by Taskforce on Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families The task force will seek to help students across all ages. There will be a particular focus on preschool and primary school students, so we can prioritise the upstream interventions where there is greatest potential for positive change and long-term impact. However, we will also look at other age groups to see how they can be best helped.

Wide-ranging Review by Taskforce on Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families UPLIFT has preliminarily identified three areas of focus that span all student age groups. First, we will consider how these students’ motivation and resilience can be improved and strengthened, so that they can get the most out of the current school efforts to level them up academically. Second, UPLIFT will study the extent and the underlying reasons of long-term absenteeism in our primary and secondary schools, exploring ways to close this small but persistent gap. Third, we will consider how to strengthen engagement and outreach to parents of disadvantaged families, with a view to improving their awareness of and connection to social and other relevant assistance, empowering them to overcome challenges and obstacles and providing support that would enable them to prioritise their children's education.

Wide-ranging Review by Taskforce on Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families The task force has begun engagements with stakeholders who are in the frontline of working with disadvantaged children and their families, including teachers, school personnel, social workers, self-help groups and community partners. Their experiences and insights will help us to crystallise the issues that need to be addressed and to develop practical strategies and solutions to uplift students of the target profile and help them realise their full potential.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act 31 Mr Murali Pillai asked the Minister for Education with regard to the set-up of the Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families Taskforce to study ways and means to help children from disadvantaged homes to level up, whether the task force can consider reviewing the adequacy of the statutory levers provided in the Children and Young Persons Act and, if deemed appropriate, recommend steps to enhance the Act for the purpose of achieving the stated objective.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act With respect to Question No 31 from Mr Murali Pillai, the thrust of that question is the Children and Young Persons Act. The Uplifting Pupils in Life and Inspiring Families Taskforce (UPLIFT) has been set up to enhance support for disadvantaged students. UPLIFT's focus is to identify the main factors and issues that prevent disadvantaged students from accessing or receiving the full benefit of our educational system and to devise practical solutions to overcome these obstacles.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act The primary objective of the Children and Young Persons Act (CYPA) is the protection of children who have been seriously harmed, for example, victims of physical abuse, or who are at risk of serious harm. Its statutory levers are essentially designed for the Government to take action to protect the children from further harm.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act There may be instances, of course, where children are prevented from doing well educationally due to harm inflicted by family members or other adults and, in those instances, the CYPA would be invoked. However, as the provisions of CYPA are adequate for its purpose, reviewing it will not be UPLIFT's focus.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act However, the more commonly occurring situation is one where there is no physical harm or abuse of the children per se but where children from disadvantaged backgrounds nevertheless underperform. The reasons for their underperformance are complex and multifactorial and often have their roots in the child’s home environment and family situation. In that respect, we have preliminarily identified the three areas of focus, which are, first, to improve and strengthen these students' motivation and resilience; second, getting to the root of the underlying reasons of long-term absenteeism in our primary and secondary schools, as failure to attend school is a common factor among underperforming students; and third, strengthening engagement and outreach to parents of disadvantaged families.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act Nevertheless, if there are other pertinent issues that need to be addressed in order to help these students, the hon Member and others are welcome to provide their feedback and input to the task force for consideration.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act Ms Rahayu Mahzam.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act Deputy Speaker, I thank the Second Minister for the answer. It is still early days yet, but I think a lot of people are encouraged with this initiative, especially since it is coming in the midst of the ongoing debate about social inequality. I raised the issue about the young children as well as youths because I see a particular opportunity for us to uplift children in that group.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act I am very happy to hear that the task force will be looking at all age groups. In particular, I was just wondering if the task force would also consider reviewing the existing support structures, especially in respect of the area of mentoring, because I think that is a growing area. There are a lot of things that we can study and look into. And that is one opportunity for us to be able to build the support network, social capital and use our youths as our assets, especially in building motivation and resilience for other young people in the community.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act Yes, indeed. I thank the Member for her suggestion. What the Member has pointed out is correct. It is not just a question of adding on to academic programmes or assisting them with their academic work. It is also very much to do with character-building, values, providing a structured environment, and also helping them with resilience and self-motivation.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act In that respect, community partners have a big role to play. So, the task force is looking to see how we can have a many-helping-hands approach and how community, self-help groups, voluntary welfare groups can all participate in this.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act Mr Murali Pillai.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank the hon Second Minister for her comprehensive answer to my Parliamentary Question. I have three supplementary questions. First, would the Minister accept that in UPLIFT's review, it is likely to find fairly intractable cases, given that over the decades, generations of families have gone up the social ladder, leaving behind rather tough cases to handle? Secondly, if that observation is pertinent and correct, then would she not agree that we need to have a whole suite of options on the table to deal with the tough cases? Finally, in that context, while I accept that the way the CYPA is currently worded, it focuses on physical abuse, would it not be possible for Parliament to consider a widening of its ambit, recognising that in some situations, the reasons why children do not do well in school is multifactorial, but in some instances, it may be due to intentional acts or neglect on the part of parents? And in those circumstances, there needs to be statutory levers to invite intervention by the state.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act I thank the hon Member for his questions. The first was whether it is likely that we would find intractable cases. I would think the answer to that would have to be yes, because there are some parents who just, no matter how much we encourage or we try, they can be as the Member described, "intractable".

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act The Member's second question was whether I would agree that we should have a suite of options. Certainly. And this is what we are looking at because it is one thing to have programmes; it is quite another thing to get some of these parents to bring their children to the programmes. What you want to do is to get buy-in from the parents on that.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act The Member asked then whether or not it would be necessary to widen the ambit of CYPA. I would put it this way. We will not rule out looking at whether we need any statutory levers. But whether or not CYPA is the correct piece of legislation in which to have them is a separate matter.

Reviewing Adequacy of Statutory Levers in Children and Young Persons Act So, what we really need to do, for one, is to try to understand what are the reasons why some parents do not send their children for such programmes or, for whatever reasons, neglect their education. Two, the general approach is, as far as possible, to use statutory levers as a last resort. Because when you have to do it by enforcement, then you are always dragging the parents to Court or trying to force them to do something, which you can do but it is so much better if the parent could take onboard the fact that the child's education is important and wants to do it willingly and voluntarily. Because if you can get the mindset right and you can have a mindset shift, then the rest will follow naturally. So, the Member is correct. You do have to look at it holistically and we will study a wide range of options.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 2 Mr Png Eng Huat asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth in respect of the Auditor-General's Report for FY2017/2018 (a) how much additional costs were hidden in the award of contracts to the overseas tenderer for the Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017; (b) whether there were such similar hidden costs paid to this overseas tenderer from 2014 to 2016 and how much was it in total; (c) what independent investigations had been carried out to address the telltale signs that the reimbursement claims made by the People's Association (PA) officer for overseas purchases for use in Chingay Parade 2017 might not be authentic; and (d) whether any of the statutory auditors of PA in previous audits flagged out such lapses since 2013.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, on Mr Png Eng Huat's questions, let me first clarify that the Auditor-General's Office's (AGO’s) recent report made no mention of "additional costs that were hidden in the award of contracts to the overseas tenderer". Instead, AGO pointed out that the successful tenderer had in its tender proposal required the organiser to bear additional obligations, which included transportation charges and provision of a site for lantern-assembly. The organiser was well aware of these additional expenses as they had been bearing the cost every year, which averaged about $34,000 for each event from 2014 to 2016. The AGO had flagged this as an administrative lapse because the organiser did not take into consideration these costs in its tender evaluation for price comparison. The organiser has acknowledged the lapse and put in place measures to avoid its recurrence.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Pertaining to the reimbursement claims made by a People's Association (PA) staff member for overseas purchases for Chingay, an independent investigation panel led by a senior officer in the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth was also set up in June 2018 to check on Chingay 2017 procurement, as well as to review past overseas Chingay purchases and payments. The panel has completed its investigations. While there was no conclusive evidence that there was wrongdoing, there were concerns over the authenticity of some transactions. PA has referred the matter to the Police and will fully cooperate with the Police in its investigations. We will decide on further steps after the Police complete their investigations.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Mr Png Eng Huat asked if any of these lapses were flagged out in the past by statutory auditors. The AGO observations for the Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese New Year and Chingay events were not observed in past external audits conducted. Although AGO did not previously flag out similar observations on Festivals and Chingay procurement, PA’s own internal audit had earlier identified that Chingay's practice of overseas procurement did not fully comply with approved procedures. PA immediately stopped these practices for Chingay in early 2017, even before AGO's recent audit.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Mr Deputy Speaker, PA acknowledges and takes a serious view of the observations by the AGO. We will continue to educate our staff and volunteers to improve the procurement practices. We will also review the rules for local and overseas purchases with a view of simplifying them for ease of application and compliance. Procedures adopted by PA must be simple, robust but not overly onerous on the staff and the large number of volunteers to adhere to. We will continue to balance the need for agility and accountability.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Mr Png Eng Huat.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank the Minister for the answer. I just got a couple of supplementary questions. Who should be ultimately held accountable for such lapses – the grassroots organisations volunteers or the management of PA? Because the PA is not run by volunteers, it is headed by People's Action Party Ministers and Members of Parliament in this Chamber and it is allocated a huge budget, closing in on $1 billion with professionally paid staff, so it is not an amateur outfit to begin with. So, I would like to ask the Minister where the buck stops for accountability at PA.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 The second question is: does the Minister agree that the work of the current auditor for PA, which has been giving PA a clean report since financial year (FY) 2013, needs to be audited as it could not pick up serious lapses repeatedly, some with telltale signs of possible fraud as reported in the AGO report? And since there is no assurance that the audit work at PA was done to the highest standard of transparency and corporate governance, would the Minister consider ordering an independent investigation or a full AGO audit, or even a forensic audit to ensure public money is well spent?

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 The last question is: does the Minister agree that it is important to hold PA to greater accountability going forward, since the weakness at PA has not been addressed over time and the lapses have become more brazen? Which Government agency would allow its staff to conduct parallel quotations and also to pay almost $150,000 in cash for overseas purchases and seek reimbursement using cash receipts? Just these three questions, Sir.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me take the three issues that Mr Png Eng Huat raised, one at a time.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 First, who is responsible? There is a current process of investigation and whoever is responsible will be taken to task. And that has been the way the Government operates before, now and in the future. Nobody is hiding anything. That has been our system. It has not changed and it will not change. We do a thorough investigation on every lapse, small or big, and we take responsibility for every mistake made and we put them right.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Second, the Member alleged that there are serious lapses and fraud. May I know where did the Member get to use the words called "serious lapses and fraud"? If we look at the AGO report, the AGO has done their job professionally, unless the Member is suggesting that the AGO has not done its job professionally. I do not think that AGO used those words. The Member can check the record. I think it is not appropriate for us to put words into the AGO's mouth unless you are making a separate serious allegation, which we will take up seriously. I have no doubt on the integrity of my public officers and their professionalism. I accept that sometimes they make mistakes and, when they do, we will put it right. But please do not use words that do not correspond to the reality or words that the AGO has not used.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 The AGO and the auditors have never, never made any comment that the PA's accounts are qualified. This is quite different from other cases which Mr Png may be familiar with. There is a material difference between whether an audit report is qualified and not qualified. Audit reports will always find in most, if not all, cases, some areas for improvements, and some areas where mistakes need to be rectified. We accept that. But there is a material difference whether a set of accounts is qualified or not qualified. And I think Mr Png knows the difference. Because it goes to the heart of whether the accounts can be accepted by the public or not.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 The Member's third question on greater accountability. PA is a large organisation run by professional staff as well as an even larger group of volunteers. This is not an excuse for PA to make mistakes. We are fully aware of the nature of PA's work. We are also fully aware of the type of work that the PA needs to do. A large volunteer base, which is why we constantly simplify our rules to make sure that the rules are compliant with processes and yet easily adhered to. We continuously find a balance between the two: the need for accountability and agility.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 So, I think it would not be right for us to insinuate that the public officers and, least of all, that the AGO has not done a proper work. If there is a suspicion that the AGO has not done a proper work, we will take the AGO to task. The AGO is independent in its report and it will stay so.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 So, I want to remind Mr Png, first, there is a serious difference between what we call a report whereby the auditors have a disclaimer of opinion where they are not able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion. There is a material difference there.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 When AGO audited Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) in 2015, AGO concluded that there was "no assurance that AHPETC's accounts are accurate and reliable, or that public funds are properly spent, accounted for, and managed". However, the Government's accounts are in order. AGO has consistently given the Government an unmodified audit opinion – unmodified audit opinion – on its financial statements. This means that the Government's financial statements containing the accounts of all Ministries, departments and Organs of State are reliable and public funds are properly accounted for. Similarly, Statutory Boards have received unmodified audit opinions from their respective auditors in their recent audit. Now, this is a material difference between a qualified set of accounts and a set of accounts that have no such qualification.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 I want to highlight two other differences. In PA, some of the mistakes made were found by our own internal processes and we made it right even before AGO comes. We reviewed the processes, we tightened the processes, we cooperated fully with the investigators to put things right. And when there is wrongdoing, we own up to it and we put it right. I think the public can make their own assessment as to the difference between how we handle our audit very seriously and how others handle theirs.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Mr Png Eng Huat.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Deputy Speaker, the AGO report actually mentioned that there were serious weaknesses in control and there were telltale signs that certain documents were not authentic. AGO will not use such words unless there is reasonable doubt. I think I spoke in this Parliament before that AGO did a special audit on AHPETC and I accepted all the findings. I have full respect for the AGO.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 In terms of audit report, the PA has many years of qualified accounts. And then—

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Minister Chan, are you raising a point of order?

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Clarification. Can I hear you say that again? Did you say PA has qualified accounts?

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Yes.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 I do not think that is what the AGO said.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 No, I am saying history, PA has many years of qualified accounts before 2007, if you look. I looked through all the reports; 2007 to 2012, it has adverse opinion. Adverse opinion is the worst opinion they can ever get for an audit report; six consecutive years. And I have asked why then there is no independent audit on PA. And then, when it finally cleared its accounts in 2013, every year is, I think, true and fair. And when AGO audited it in 2014, 2017, they found all these serious lapses. So, what I am asking for is accountability. Accountability must mean something, it must mean for all. And it is not too much to ask for that.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank Mr Png Eng Huat for clarifying that he is not casting doubt on the integrity of the AGO report. Can I have a confirmation that the Member is not questioning the integrity of our AGO?

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 I have full respect.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Thank you very much. Thank you very much for accepting that you have full respect for the AGO's professional work. I have similar respect for my AGO's work. And if that is so, then we take the AGO report as what it is. And I would like to repeat this: there is a material difference to what it means by a set of qualified accounts and what it means not to have that qualification. I think we are very clear in our mind whether the PA accounts were qualified or not. The Member can check that. I suggest the Member invite Mr Chen Show Mao, who is sitting beside him, who is well-versed in this, to clarify what is the difference between a set of qualified accounts and otherwise.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Dr Lily Neo.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to declare that I am the grassroots adviser in charge of Chinatown festivals. May I ask the Minister whether it is correct to say that the tenders for the Chinatown festivals had been properly procured at every festival for the last 16 years, and they were all itemised tenders?

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 May I also ask the Minister whether it is correct to say that the Chinatown festivals had always been self-funded and self-sufficient and only depending on public money, as mentioned earlier, or PA's funding had always been only about 1%-2%, on average, for the last 16 years? I would like to clear that, please.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Mr Deputy Speaker, in response to Member Dr Lily Neo's comment, what the AGO found for that particular event was this: all the items were accounted for; they were itemised. The comments refer to specifically this: should the whole set of things be put under the tender or this part we put under tender and the cost, the other portion of the cost that have to be borne, because of the transportation and the storage, be combined together? What the auditors found and suggested for improvement is that not only the tender cost for the products but also the storage and the transportation be considered in full rather than separately.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 The cost has been made clear, the organisers have been aware of both sets of costs but, perhaps, the inadequacy of the organiser was not to consider the two parts in its entirety. That is the clarification I want to make. So, it is not that the costs have not been accounted for. It is not as if there are no bills and receipts to justify the payment. It is not that there is anything that has not been shown to the public or revealed to the auditors.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 The question and the suggestion by the auditors are that, going forward, instead of considering the two separately, the tender for the product separately from the storage and transportation costs, that the two should be conducted in its entirety. We will do that and we have done that to rectify it.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Mr Png Eng Huat.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Mr Deputy Speaker, just one last question. I think just now the Minister said that because of the auditor giving us a qualified account for two years – I think the history is there, it had been debated here – because of that, the Government ordered AGO to audit our accounts, because our auditor qualified our accounts.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Then, I would like to ask the Minister, PA has many years of qualified accounts before 2007 and six years of consecutive adverse report, why then did the Government not order any audits on PA?

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Mr Deputy Speaker, may I suggest Mr Png ask an accountant to explain to him what it means to have qualified accounts and not qualified accounts. As a layman, let me try again to explain in layman's terms.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 In every audit report, we can expect to find mistakes made, no excuse. Mistakes made must be corrected and rectified. Full stop. Having made mistakes, does it mean that the set of accounts can be trusted, in layman's term? If the set of accounts can be trusted, because notwithstanding the mistakes made, that means there is no material impact, then we do not need to have a qualified opinion. But if the auditor comes out and say that, "I look at the set of accounts, yes, there are mistakes made, but on top of the mistakes made, I cannot be confident that this set of accounts is correct and can be trusted." Then, people will give a qualified opinion. That is a material difference.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 And I am not sure that the Member's statement is correct: that PA has a qualified set of accounts. PA has made mistakes, we accept, we acknowledge and we will rectify and put it right. But at no time was it ever suggested that the accounts cannot be trusted; that there is a material impact that the set of accounts cannot be trusted.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 If the Member likes, I would clarify the following things. I know that the Member has been trying to draw a comparison between Aljunied-Hougang Town Council's (AHTC's) case and PA's, and AGO's findings for various Government agencies. As the AHTC's lawsuit is pending before the Courts, I will limit my comments to what is material.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Any lapses in Government agencies can undermine public confidence in the Government as an institution and affects the integrity of our Civil Service. And this is why it is necessary, in the public interest, to explain and distinguish the facts, circumstances and follow-up actions concerning the AHTC's lapse and those found by the AGO in the Government agencies. And I will limit myself to the facts. The issues surrounding AHTC's case are very different from the lapses found by AGO in Government agencies.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 First, and I repeat, the accounts of AHPETC, or known as AHTC, have been found by its auditors to be unreliable from fiscal year 2012 to 2017. Its auditors, the Member's auditors, repeatedly gave the Town Council a disclaimer of opinion as they were "not able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion."

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 When AGO audited AHPETC in 2015, AGO concluded that there was "no assurance that AHPETC's accounts are accurate and reliable or their public funds are probably spent, accounted for and managed". However, the Government's accounts are in order. AGO has consistently given the Government an unmodified audit opinion on its financial statements. This means that the Government's financial statements containing the accounts of all Ministries, departments and Organs of States are reliable and public funds are probably accounted for. But that does not mean that there are no mistakes. Similarly, Statutory Boards have received unmodified audit opinions from their respective auditors in their recent audits.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Second, quoting KPMG's opinion in its July 2016 report, the controlled failures in AHTC were "pervasive, cross-cutting across the key areas of governance, financial control, financial reporting, procurement and records management over the course of five years." AGO also found 150 lapses in 2015 and KPMG uncovered a further 70 controlled failures in AHTC in 2016. The Government does not face similar issues. The Government has rules and procedures in place to ensure proper systems of checks and balances. AGO audits pointed out that the instances of lapses found in the Government agencies were failure to comply with these rules. These lapses were taken in the context of a much larger Public Service with more than 140,000 officers handling hundreds and thousands of transactions every year.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 The difference is this: our rules are in place. When compliance is not in order, we take officers to task and we improve and tighten up the system.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 Third, on the Government agencies' response to lapses found by AGO, their responses have been to take firm action against individuals responsible. And if I may add, even before AGO comes in, various of the agencies have their own internal audits, just like PA, to pick out mistakes made and to rectify them ahead of time. Where criminal offence is suspected, the cases are promptly surfaced to the Head of Department or organisation and a report filed with the relevant authority, such as the Police or the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau, and this is exactly what has happened.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 To give an example, following the AGO's audit report indicating possible wrongdoings in relation to the procurement in the National Library Board in 2014, we referred the case to the Police and a former officer has been charged for corruption. There are other past criminal cases reported in the media. We do not hide them, we do not sweep them under the carpet. We face them squarely and we take the actions necessary.

Additional Hidden Costs in Award of Contracts to Overseas Tenderer for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017 For administrative and procedural lapses, disciplinary actions are taken against officers where warranted. These range from counselling and warning to stoppage of salary increment and dismissal. Government agencies take AGO's audit observations very seriously and are committed to rectifying the lapses. Where there are lapses, they will openly acknowledge and steps are taken to address them as soon as possible and lessons are shared across the entire Public Service. Government agencies are accountable to the Public Accounts Committee for their corrective and preventive actions taken in response to these lapses.