15 of 41 AVA buildings left vacant

SINGAPORE — Of the 41 buildings the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) had leased at Sembawang, 15 were left vacant for two to 14 years and three were partially occupied for eight to 11 years. That is almost a third of the gross floor area left unused.

The Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) also found some of the empty buildings to be poorly maintained. One had termites while others had condemned furniture and discarded items.

This was tantamount to a waste of public resources, said the AGO yesterday in its report.

Of the three specialised centres the AVA has at Lim Chu Kang, the AGO said 1,287 sqm in total were left vacant for more than a decade. And of the five laboratories the AVA has in its third centre, four were used only for seven to 12 days per month between January 2008 and November last year.

“The AVA should carry out a thorough review of its space requirements for the two sites so that land and buildings no longer required by the AVA could be put to better use,” it said.

The AVA also under-used or left unused a number of assets, such as a tractor and a trailer bought at S$31,200, a marine vessel that cost S$98,000 and was refurbished for S$477,000, and 263 assets of mainly research equipment and machinery.

The report said the AVA has initiated a review of its land and building use and has plans to retrofit certain vacant space and expand research collaborations to up laboratory use. The AVA also said it would review the need for its assets. KOK XING HUI