\n<\/p>\n
The audit also uncovered six cases where applicants for the Proximity Housing Grant (PHG) and the CPF Housing Grant (CPFHG) received grants more than once due to system errors and staff oversight.<\/p>\n
HDB\u2019s subsequent checks identified an additional four cases beyond the audit period.<\/p>\n
\u201cHDB informed us that the programming error had since been rectified. It had issued verbal warnings to the o\ufb03cers involved and would conduct refresher training for staff. For the affected PHG and CPFHG applications, it had either recovered the grant or regularised the case,\u201d said AGO.<\/p>\n
AGO also uncovered two instances where applicants exceeded income ceilings but were still granted the CPF Housing Grant. HDB identified three additional cases following the auditor’s findings.<\/p>\n
HDB attributed these to system issues or oversight.<\/p>\n
“HDB informed us that it had previously detected the system issue and implemented a fix in November 2024, but these cases were not detected then,” the AGO said in its report.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“HDB would assess the cases to determine the appropriate follow-up actions. It would also implement measures to further strengthen detection and oversight, which included regular refresher training, system prompts and exception reports.”<\/p>\n
AGO also flagged gaps in HDB\u2019s monitoring of compliance with grant conditions during the minimum occupation period, including the requirement for PHG recipients to live with or within 4km of their parent or married child throughout the MOP.<\/p>\n
For 1,619 applications involving about S$92.9 million in grants, discrepancies were found between HDB\u2019s records and ICA address data. These discrepancies raised concerns that recipients or their family members may not have met residence requirements.<\/p>\n
HDB said it has taken follow-up actions, including recovering grants with accrued interest where conditions were breached.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It will also revise the terms and conditions of the PHG agreements to require individuals to update their NRIC addresses within 28 days of moving into the purchased \ufb02at to stay with the applicants, or to an address within 4km of the purchased \ufb02at.<\/p>\n
The audit also uncovered widespread lapses in eligibility checks for season parking.<\/p>\n
More than 228,000 applications and renewals, amounting to S$24.99 million in revenue, were approved despite applicants not meeting criteria.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These included cases involving deceased applicants (S$2.95 million), applicants who were not the registered flat owner, tenants (S$21.58 million) and family parking arrangements that did not meet proximity requirements (S$490,000).<\/p>\n
Separately, more than 10,000 transactions involving commercial vehicles charged incorrect season parking rates, resulting in an estimated S$1 million in under-collection.<\/p>\n
The AGO report said HDB acknowledged the need to strengthen its verification checks on season parking and family season parking transactions, as well as its controls to identify commercial vehicles to charge the correct season parking rate.<\/p>\n
It would also introduce measures such as requiring applicants to declare at application that they had met the eligibility criteria and reminding them at renewal that they must continue to do so. In addition, HDB plans to implement a revamped season parking system by 2027.<\/p>\n
Significant gaps were also identified in HDB\u2019s oversight of a contractor responsible for car park patrol and enforcement services from Nov 1, 2021 to Jan 31, 2026.<\/p>\n
A preliminary estimate found that HDB may have overpaid about S$9.7 million for work not performed.<\/p>\n
AGO uncovered \u201csignificant discrepancies\u201d in patrol records, non-compliance with audit requirements and other indications of shortfall in patrol work, including multiple instances where the patrol of a location was completed in \u201cless than 10 seconds\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven that about 50 per cent of the car parks to be patrolled were multi-storey car parks, it is highly implausible for a car park to be properly patrolled in such a short span of time,” said the AGO.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also noted that HDB did not make use of available data, such as actual patrol records, to facilitate its monitoring of the contractor beyond the existing system alerts. Thus, there was a risk that patrol duties might not have been performed as required under the contract.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition, the actual patrol frequency for some car parks was lower than required by HDB. There were also concurrent clock-ins by the same patrol personnel at different car park locations.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring our audit, HDB raised the data discrepancy issues with the contractor\u2019s senior management who then initiated an investigation. According to the contractor, their investigation found that its IT system for managing the work of patrol personnel had access control weaknesses,\u201d said the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis resulted in the integrity of the records in the system and data for the audit being compromised. HDB informed us that the contractor had since lodged a police report and that it had worked with the contractor to put in place protective measures.\u201d<\/p>\n
HDB said it has zero tolerance for attempts to undermine its enforcement process and will exercise its full contractual rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cBesides issuing a formal warning letter in March 2026 for contractual breaches, HDB has commenced recovery of the administrative charges, which includes the full extent of payments made for works not rendered,\u201d said the agency, adding that it recognises that there were gaps in its processes and has taken steps to address them.<\/p>\n
This includes the implementation of automated system checks for more rigorous monitoring and adopting stronger contractual requirements in the latest contracts.<\/p>\n
AGO also flagged errors in the valuation of variation works under Home Improvement Programme (HIP) projects, resulting in both overpayments and underpayments.<\/p>\n
HDB has since reassessed the affected variation orders and rectified the valuation errors. It also accorded a poor performance grading to the consultants involved, which will affect their future tendering opportunities for HDB projects.<\/p>\n
Possible irregularities were also identified in quotations for certain works, raising concerns about whether value for money had been achieved.<\/p>\n
AGO’s checks also found \u201ctell-tale signs\u201d of possible irregularities in supporting documents submitted for audit. The construction contract concerned was managed by a consultant engaged by HDB.<\/p>\n
A subsequent investigation conducted by HDB found that the employee involved had no intention to impede the audit process.<\/p>\n
However, HDB acknowledged that making alterations to documents was a serious matter and said it takes a firm view of such lapses. Disciplinary action has been taken against the staff member responsible.<\/p>\n
HDB also issued a warning letter and accorded a poor performance grading to the consultant, which will affect its future tendering opportunities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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DUPLICATE GRANTS OR INCOME CEILING EXCEEDED The audit also uncovered six cases where applicants for the Proximity Housing Grant (PHG) and the CPF Housing Grant…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--6R40HbIy--\/c_crop,h_900,w_1600,x_0,y_0\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/06\/25\/housing_flats_bto_hdb07.jpg?itok=41YQkzyp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26545,12221,7818,6064,3174,4816,4286,3901,26544,554,5412],"class_list":["post-68891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-allocated","tag-applicants","tag-checks","tag-due","tag-flats","tag-grants","tag-hdb","tag-housing","tag-ineligible","tag-report","tag-weaknesses","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}