Clarification by Senior Minister of State for Finance

7.16 pm

Mr Deputy Speaker: Clarification. Senior Minister of State Chee Hong Tat.

The Senior Minister of State for Finance (Mr Chee Hong Tat): Sir, I would like to clarify a point from my earlier response to Mr Gerald Giam's Parliamentary Question (PQ), where I said that AGO's audits go beyond procedural compliance and include value-for-money or VFM audits. [Please refer to "Analysis of Government's COVID-19 Procurement and Expenditure", Official Report, 1 March 2023, Vol 95, Issue 89, Oral Answers to Questions section.]

To be precise and accurate, AGO's audits cover VFM insofar as ascertaining whether there has been excess, extravagance or gross inefficiency leading to waste, and whether measures to prevent them are in place.