Ownself Check Ownself

[calvin ong]

In the report released by the Auditor-General's office on July 26, it is made known that the National Arts Council (NAC) which falls under the governance of Ministry of Community, Culture and Youth (MCCY) paid a considerable sum of consultation fees,$0.41 million on a bin centre that cost $0.47 million, without conducting a cost assessment to ascertain the reasonableness of the fee quoted.

AGO stated that there had been inadequate assessment on the reasonableness of the consultancy fee of $0.41 million quoted for the construction of a bin centre;
the fee was exceptionally high at 87.2 per cent of the construction cost ($0.47 million). Hence, there was no assurance that the fee paid by NAC was reasonable.

AGO observed that NAC had directly engaged the VT/VCH consultants to provide additional consultancy services (amounting to $0.41 million) for the construction of a bin centre, without first conducting a cost assessment to ascertain the reasonableness of the fee quoted.

AGO is of the view that the consultancy fee, at 87.2 per cent of the construction cost of $0.47 million for the bin centre, was exceptionally high.

Based on the terms of reference for this project, NAC was responsible for seeking approval from its tender board for the engagement of consultants. Thereafter, NAC would seek approval for the drawdown of funds from its supervising ministry.

The project was started when NAC was under the then Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA) and taken over by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) following a restructuring of MICA. AGO noted that when NAC sought approval for the engagement of consultants, it did not carry out due diligence to assess the reasonableness of the consultancy fee

AGO’s further checks revealed that when approval was sought for the drawdown of funds, the assessment by the then MICA of the consultancy fee quoted was not robust. Instead of using the norm methodology (that is, percentage of the quoted fee over the construction cost of the works) to assess the reasonableness of the fee, MICA had benchmarked the fee for the construction of the bin centre against other more complex projects. Had the norm been used, it would have been clear that the consultancy fee quoted for the bin centre was exceptionally high.

NAC explained that it had worked with its supervising ministry on this project and relied on the ministry’s cost assessment. Going forward, NAC would ensure that the relevant cost assessments are included when seeking approval from its approving authorities for procurement.

MCCY informed AGO that the construction of the bin centre for this project was more complex and required significantly more design expertise, technical consultancy services and effort to coordinate with multiple parties and these were the reasons for the fee to be above the norm.

It acknowledged that the cost assessment could have been more robust.

However, AGO noted that these reasons were not cited in the approval paper for the drawdown of funds and that there was also no documentary evidence that these reasons were indeed considered at the material point in time.

Ownself Check Ownself
And who is the consultant for this project ?
Consultancy fee $410,000
How complicated can it be to build a rubbish bin centre that it needs to spend $410,000 on consultancy fees ?

[hkh]

Last round bought expensive Brompton bikes.......now must be state-of-the-art bin centre.......... and all these are justified by our dear Ministers.......

[stargazer]

Originally Posted by hkh

Last round bought expensive Brompton bikes.......now must be state-of-the-art bin centre.......... and all these are justified by our dear Ministers.......

Of cos must be state of the art. Inside got partition for air-con, wi-fi, spa, so that your dear highly paid ministers can sleep inside comfortably

[streetsmart73]

talking cocktail cock talking

Ah gong monies who & why care

No head rolling; biz as usual

Simi again office, toothless leh in this aspect

[lenghan]

Originally Posted by streetsmart73

talking cocktail cock talking

Ah gong monies who & why care

No head rolling; biz as usual

Simi again office, toothless leh in this aspect

Agree...totally "toothless" report that will be "swept under the carpet" in double quick time....

[streetsmart73]

another expensive and equally toothless : municipal services office

[HeiYuEr]

Originally Posted by calvin ong

Ownself Check Ownself
And who is the consultant for this project ?
Consultancy fee $410,000
How complicated can it be to build a rubbish bin centre that it needs to spend $410,000 on consultancy fees ?

sorry hor......is building $470k rubbish bin with another $410k fees leh

do u all got see the before and after pics of that rubbish chute?

[tangmulong4488]

so uncareful with tax payers money

[Kohaku]

No lah, they need expert advice mah, so need to pay for it. I wonder why they never ask me. I only charge $200k only.

[lenghan]

http://theindependent.sg/ago-report-...-chut-pattern/