As part of its accreditation requirements, HSA highlighted the incident to the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB) in November 2011.

The Laboratory will undergo a scheduled re-accreditation audit by external assessors from the accreditation agency in February 2012.

In addition, the HSA Board has appointed a Committee to conduct an independent and in-depth review of the incident.

Chaired by Ms Serene Wee, CEO of the Singapore Academy of Law, the committee will also recommend appropriate measures to strengthen HSA's wider risk management processes to prevent recurrence of such an incident.

The other two members of the committee are Professor Ranga Krishnan, HSA Board Member and Dean of the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, and Mr Max Loh, a Managing Partner of Ernst and Young.

Together, the three members of the committee will tap on their legal, scientific and accounting expertise to the review process and assessment. The Committee has already commenced its review and will be supported by a Secretariat staffed by MOH personnel.

Minister Gan said that in addition to reviewing the incident, the committee will also will submit its findings and recommendations to the HSA Board and the Ministry of Health.

MOH and HSA will update the public again when the review and the re-testing of samples requested by AGC are completed, which will be around March.

dassa@sph.com.sg