Reasons for Wrongful $370 million Jobs Support Scheme Payouts

Ms Hazel Poa asked the Minister for Trade and Industry what caused the errors that resulted in the wrongful Jobs Support Scheme payouts of $370 million.

Mr Chan Chun Sing: The incorrect Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) payouts resulted from errors in the tagging of business re-opening dates for some businesses, which was used for the computation of the JSS payouts. As the processes for the resumption of business activities had to be implemented at short notice, MTI used existing systems and manual processes to grant approvals for businesses to re-open. Unfortunately, in so doing, mistakes were made with the re-opening dates and concomitantly the JSS payouts.