Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Auditor General's Report - How did our MOH do?

The publication of the recent AG (Auditor General)'s report created quite a bit of stir. What has been refreshing has been the increasing transparency of the process and findings. What had in the past been pretty much swept under the carpet is now (since 2007) finding it's way out into the public domain. And it is fantastic improvement, I must say.

This year the MDA (Media Development Authority) got a bit of thrashing ... deservedly so I thought. And what about SPRING's fiasco with respect to Phillip Yeo's Office? That was kinda indecent the way they handled it. I hope there will be some concrete response to the report. Who will the scapegoat I wonder?

I wonder if there have been other irregularites that have been found but not made public?

Why can't the report be more substantive and complete? For example, the report on our MOH kinda fudges around the use of inadequate KPIs without telling us any details, and cites MOH's rather fuzzy remarks about internal KPIs without telling us what these KPIs are. And since we don't know what the MOH KPIs are....the whole thing is meaningless to us.

One gets the feeling that the AG Office is somehow skirting the issues and 'afraid' to point the finger at where the problems lie.

Lastly as the 'My Sketchbook' cartoon above mocks.... Where is the follow up? Is someone keeping track of remedial actions? The AG's report doesn't mention compliance and follow up actions from previous audits.

So how? I say more needs to be done.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's transparency, Singapore style for you. They only highlight the lapses, as that's what the masses are taken in by. Who out there really bothers (or remembers) about the follow up action or whether it's going to ever happen again?

Anonymous said...

No follow up actions, no heads rolled and they want to compare their salaries with the private
sector. If those responsible were
in the private sector, they will be
shown the door in no time.
As most netizens sees it, just another "wayang"

gigamole said...

:) Yah, I think we are all agreed that the AG's report wasn't adequate.

But the optimist in me tends to want to think that it may yet improve. I mean, this public flogging of government agencies has been taking place for only a few years, hasn't it? Previously we would never have known of these 'lapses'. Now I am hoping that with constant pressures from the public, things may open up some more so that the audits become more substantive and themselves become more transparent.