NPARKS Awarded over $20m contracts WITHOUT open tender, WITHOUT compelling reason

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Today 5:31 PM Post: #1 lambo
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Posts: 1,233
Reputation: 4 Checks by the AGO also found that managers of the $1 billion Gardens by the Bay project had awarded over $20 million of contracts through a waiver of competition, without compelling reasons.

NParks cited a tight timeline as the main reason for the waiver, but there was no evidence that the tight timeline was caused by unforeseen events, said the AGO.

"Among other things, NParks had breached the government procurement principle of open and fair competition for consultancy services contracts and there was no assurance that value for money was achieved for the services procured," the AGO concluded.

NParks has acknowledged that it should have called for an open tender instead.

The AGO audits a selective sample of accounts and not all of them. Although ministries are audited yearly, statutory boards come under scrutiny rotationally.

The annual report, therefore, does not reflect the general state of administration in the bodies audited. It instead highlights areas where they can improve, said the AGO.
- See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapor....YiLTTUGb.dpuf

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NATIONAL PARKS BOARD

"The Auditor-General's Office's test-checks revealed a general lack of documentation, failure to obtain approval and laxity in control over contract variations by NParks in managing the development of the Gardens By The Bay project", which has an estimated total contract value of S$1.06 billion, the AGO said.

"Consequently, there was no assurance that NParks had not spent more funds than necessary."

One consultant was allowed to commence services before approval was obtained to call a tender in which only that consultant was invited to bid, for a project with a contract value of S$2.37 million, said the AGO. "By doing so, NParks had prematurely communicated to the consultant that it had intended to award the contract to the consultant."

NParks said it did so as it faced a tight timeline, and acknowledged that it should have highlighted to relevant authorities that more time was needed, and called an open tender instead.

The AGO also found that three consultancy services contracts with an estimated total value of S$20.77 million was awarded via waiver of competition, but without compelling reasons. Again, the tight timeline was cited, though no evidence was found to show this.

The AGO also took issue with the weak controls over contract variations in the Gardens By The Bay project.

In 43 instances, the AGO found that only a single quote was received for various projects, but there was no documentary evidence of the assessment of whether the quotes were reasonable. In 45 cases, approval were obtained only after the work had been carried out or completed. And in 12 instances, no evidence was found of approval for variation work even though payment had been made.

NParks said that these variations were mainly "specialist sub-consultancy studies" which had to be carried out due to the complexity of the project; to minimise such future occurrences, NParks said it would incorporate such studies in the main tenders instead. It has also implemented a computerised contract variation system to better track approvals of such contracts.

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