Chitchat 2 years to investigate a simple case of criminal misappropriation by Ministr

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

See the highly defensive and cover your arse press statement below.

2 bloody years to investigate a straight forward and simple case. The ministry staff diverted payments amounting to $350K to 2 accounts of his instead of 42 social welfare recipients. The statement gives the impression that it was detected by the Ministry but I heard that people who supposed to receive the payments complained. Which is expected as they depend on this welfare payments to buy food. Even one day late, you can expect a phone cal.

There is nothing sophisticated about this crime. Not sure why the hullabaloo, review teams from various ministries etc? I won't be surprised this case was delayed purposely to sail thru GE2015.

Honestly what will review do for such a case? Ask a MP to deliver the payments to the welfare recipients directly? Payments reconciliation controls are basic and used by companies and public bodies around the world. No need for an entire panel. There are even programs that does recons and isolates new and exception payments. The recipients complaining is also an acceptable control as you do not want build a high costly framework to handle straight forward payments.

Note also that there is absolutely no mention of review findings or what the new recommended changes are. Another NAC bin case where the supposed complexity of the issue led to an eventual simple cover on the top and the sides of an existing structure despite the high cost of consulting and reviewing.

This sort of press statements reveals a culture where a mistake, any mistake big or small is immediately and wrongly construed as a political time bomb. This leads to other adverse cultural traits where cover-ups, defensive language such "blame culture", "do not want to panic the public" "immediately a multi-disciplinary review panel was created" are thrown around needlessly. In essence, such a mentality and culture become the norm and risk-taking however small is frowned upon and staff including senior ones just do the basic and do what you are told to receive the salary.

Anyone reading the press statement would have thought that guy had many accomplices, siphoned off millions from the State Treasury using sophisticate software, identity was only unmasked after ISD, SID, SCDF, St John's Ambulance etc was brought in and it took 2 years of protracted investigations, requiring Interpol and Asean Security agencies etc.

The most ridiculous and most kiasu press release ever.

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https://www.facebook.com/notes/msf-s...79169821Social Service Officer Charged for Misappropriation of Funds
MSF SINGAPORE·WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2016
The Police have charged a Social Service Office (SSO) officer, Chia Kwang Hwee, under the Penal Code, Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act and the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act.
On 14 August 2014, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) was alerted by a ComCare beneficiary that he had not received his financial assistance payments. Upon investigation, the Ministry found information suggesting that a SSO officer from the Geylang Serai office could have misappropriated funds meant for financial assistance payments. On 15 August 2014, the Ministry filed a Police report.
The Police investigated the matter with full cooperation from the Ministry. MSF also suspended the officer from his duties from the time the Police report was filed.
Immediately following the incident, the Ministry contacted all affected families to ensure the assistance they needed were not affected by the case.
The Ministry’s internal auditor has conducted checks on all the SSOs’ payment records, and confirmed that there were no other occurrences of a similar nature.
The Ministry has also reviewed and strengthened systems, processes and controls at all the SSOs. As part of this effort, the Ministry had convened an independent review panel comprising senior officials from other government agencies to look into the checks and control mechanisms for financial assistance payments in all the SSOs. The Ministry has implemented the Panel’s recommendations. Examples of the changes made include:
Strengthening the administration of access to our IT system;
Including additional checks to ensure payments to clients; and
Allocating cases such that no officer will be allowed to take charge of a particular client for more than two consecutive years.
Please see Annex for background on the case.
MSF does not condone or tolerate any conduct that undermines the integrity of our social assistance system and interest of our beneficiaries, and would not hesitate to take appropriate action against any officer with such conduct.
Annex

Background on the Case
MSF started rolling out the network of Social Service Offices (SSOs) island-wide since July 2013. These are staffed by MSF officers who had previously undertaken the disbursement of social assistance prior to the setting up of the SSOs.
As a team leader, Chia’s job scope included assessing applications for financial assistance and putting them up to his supervisor for approval, approving assistance for cases handled by other officers in his team, and case-managing families with multiple needs.
On 14 Aug 2014, the management of the SSO at Geylang Serai detected suspicious social assistance transactions involving one officer, Chia Kwang Hwee, where the GIRO payments for 26 clients were disbursed into two bank accounts.
On 15 Aug 2014, MSF lodged a police report against Chia for alleged fraud after confirming that one of the said accounts was Chia’s payroll account.
On 18 Aug 2014, the police arrested Chia.
On 19 Aug 2014, MSF interdicted Chia from duties.
Immediately following the incident, MSF contacted all 42 affected clients to ensure that the assistance they needed were met accordingly.
On 15 Sep 2014, MSF appointed an Independent Review Panel to review and report on the circumstances surrounding the alleged misappropriation of social assistance funds by an officer in SSO at Geylang Serai and recommend necessary changes in internal controls for the handling of social assistance payments.
The Panel reviewed three areas – system, process and people – in which the MSF and SSO at Geylang Serai operated in, as well as transactions to assess the adequacy and effectiveness of the prevailing social administration and disbursement process.
The Ministry has implemented the Panel’s recommendations


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