Singapore’s national developer of industrial infrastructure, Jurong Town Corporation (JTC), is using data analytics to screen for irregularities in procurement to lower its risks.

Several procurement scandals in Singapore public sector has brought procurement risk to the limelight. FutureGov speaks with JTC’s Group Chief Financial Officer Ho Tuck Chuen on how they are improving their internal processes to ensure such procurement frauds do not happen.

“JTC is involved with many tenders, which are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, so we are fully aware of the importance of procurement and its risks. Besides having a robust internal control framework in place, we further segregate incompatible functions. The person who places an order, cannot have the responsibility to evaluate, approve or pay, and vice versa,” said Ho. “Recently, we conducted a pilot on procurement forensics, using data analytics to find irregularities.”

Working alongside a consultant, Ho’s team worked out certain business rules designed to catch areas of concern in procurement. These rules are then run through the large live database for a period of time to extract exceptions. These exceptions are then manually examined to find the cause.

The forensic procurement exercise fulfils two purposes, according to Ho. “Analytics complements the work which audit does. JTC manages millions of transactions and it is impossible to audit every single one. Analytics is a powerful tool that can scan through 100 per cent of our transactions. It is almost like putting your database through an x-ray machine,” he said. “Moreover, we make it known to everyone that we are running this exercise. It will have a deterrent effect, a signal to the entire organisation that irregularities will be captured,” explained Ho. This “continuous monitoring” will help strengthen and close up any loopholes in procurement.

The government has also taken steps to tighten internal control and governance in the public sector, added Ho. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, announced a new reporting system last month. Government agencies are now required to report to the Ministry of Finance with an assessment of their findings on procurement audits, their yearly follow-up action and pre-emptive plans to avoid future weaknesses.