Corrupted acts found but PA declare “No evidence of Dishonesty”

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

After founding solid evidence that points to clear-cut conflict-of-interests by a Citizen’s Consultative Committee (CCC) Chairman and a CCC member, the People’s Association (PA)-appointed Investigation Panel found “no evidence of dishonesty”.


These are the following corrupted acts committed by the CCC Chairman and the CCC member which the PA found “no evidence of dishonesty”:


1) On two occasions, a company related to the CCC Chairman and CCC member won a tender with the lowest bid and the two knowingly did not declare that their relationships with the company. The two contracts are worth S$32,000.


2) On seven occasions, The CCC Chairman approved his own claims to the tune of S$114,767.


3) On one occasion, the CCC Chairman approved S$1,500 of purchase for a company where he was director.


The numerous corrupted acts are found and released by the Attorney-General’s Office (AGO) but the Singapore Police’s Corrupt Practice Investigation Bureau (CPIB) is not activated. The PA claimed that everything is “according to procedures” and choose to label the corrupted acts as “lapses”.


The chairman of PA is Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the CPIB reports to the Prime Minister’s Office.


PA Board List


The CCC chairman has since resigned but he was not arrested as no police reports have been made. The identity of the CCC chairman is unknown and the PAP constituency he was in-charge of remains anonymous and covered up by the Singapore state-controlled media Channel News Asia.


Below is the press release from the PA:

“The People’s Association (PA) takes the findings of the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) seriously. We have taken immediate action to rectify the lapses observed.


The PA has in place a comprehensive set of financial rules for grassroots organisations (GROs) to ensure good governance and sound financial practices. However, as observed by AGO, there were procedural lapses including seeking tenancy and procurement approval from the wrong approving authority; delay in collecting course fees and data entry errors. There was also one case of non-declaration of conflict of interest and approval of own claims.


PROCEDURAL LAPSES
Wrong Approving Authority


Most of the tenancy contracts audited were awarded from 2007 to 2012. Community Centre Management Committees (CCMCs) typically invite tenants on a three-year lease with an option to renew. Some CCMCs did not include the optional extension period in their total contract value, resulting in them obtaining approval from the wrong approving authority. PA had already recognized this issue in 2012 and set up a unit to strengthen the procedures for awarding tenancy contracts. Since then, the number of tenancy contracts with wrong approving authority has decreased.

No infringements were detected in 2015.

No Written Invitations To Quote For Goods And Services
Instead of writing, GROs asked vendors for quotes via phone. The majority of such cases involved food catering where the price per head/table was pre-determined. They then evaluated the bids based on the menu that offered most value for money.


All GROs have been reminded to comply with our procedures of inviting quotes in writing.






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