SINGAPORE: The police are investigating possible irregularities found in a construction contract for national water agency PUB.
The Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) report for the financial year 2024-2025, which was released on Tuesday (Sep 9), found possible irregularities in quotations provided for “star rate” items. These are items with rates not listed in contracts.
In its audit, AGO had concerns over the “authenticity of the quotations provided and whether value for money had been obtained for the items”.
PUB then made a police report to investigate if there were any fraudulent practices in the quotations provided to the agency.
It said in its media statement that it acknowledged the lapses found in the AGO report and would continue to review and strengthen its system of managing procurement and operations.
IRREGULARITIES IN QUOTATIONS
AGO’s report found possible irregularities in the quotations provided for 23 out of 25 star rate items.
These totalled S$148,900 (about US$190,800) or 94 per cent of the total value of star rate items test-checked under a construction contract for waterscape works.
The contract was managed by a consultant engaged by the agency.
PUB said that it had put in place measures to manage star rate items, including procedures on how star rates should be evaluated, as well as supervisory checks to approve the rates.
However, the agency recognised that it may not be straightforward to identify irregularities immediately, “especially for more complex cases or instances where signs are not obvious”.
POOR MANAGEMENT OF CONTRACTS FOR WATER QUALITY ANALYSERS
The audit report also highlighted issues regarding PUB’s maintenance services contracts covering its water quality analysers at three private sector-operated desalination plants.
Under a public-private partnership arrangement, each water plant is operated by a private-sector partner, which would install and maintain a set of analysers to measure water quality. PUB also installed its own water quality analysers at these plants to countercheck the partners’ water quality readings, which enable it to ensure that things are in order before making payments.
AGO found indications of poor management of these contracts. For instance:
- The system to alert PUB when analyser readings reach specified limits was not working
- The scope of work in the contracts was not comprehensive
- An extended time was taken to rectify the loss of PUB analyser data
PUB acknowledged that the scope of the contracts should have been more comprehensive to include maintenance and troubleshooting of data and alert-related systems.
At two of the plants, PUB’s analysers had technical issues that resulted in the malfunctioning of the SMS alert systems, as well as gaps in data transfer from the analysers over a 12-month period.
The agency became aware of the issues in mid-2023 and took action to resolve these and to develop longer-term solutions.
The PUB analysers at the two plants were eventually restored late in 2024. Since January 2025, it has linked all the analysers to its internal system directly, enabling the automation of alerts and data transfer.
It assured the public that the water quality at the desalination plants was not compromised at any point in time.
PUB’s water quality analysers were installed to provide extra precautionary checks as further safeguards on water quality, it said.
