Aid given out after death: IT vendor blamed

An IT vendor was responsible for the continued payment of financial assistance to 99 people even after their deaths, Minister of Health Gan Kim Yong said in Parliament yesterday.

He was responding to MP Chia Shi-Lu's question on the Auditor-General's report about the ministry's lapse.

A total of $64,000 had been wrongly given out under the Interim Disability Assistance Programme for the Elderly programme (Idape).

Mr Gan said the vendor, hired by the ministry in 2002, did not update the list of recipients who had died in some months during migrations in their IT processing system.

Under the terms of the Idape tender, the vendor is obliged to reimburse the ministry the full amount wrongly paid.

Mr Gan said the ministry views the Auditor-General's findings seriously and was taking action to ensure that such mistakes are prevented in future

This article was first published on August 06, 2014.
Get The New Paper for more stories.