57 reports of abuse, fraudulent application of Covid-19 grants, payouts received by police: Shanmugam

SINGAPORE — The authorities have received 57 reports involving the abuse or fraudulent application of Covid-19 government grants and payouts between March 2020 and December last year.

Of these cases, investigations into 17 of them have since concluded, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said on Tuesday (Jan 11).

“To date, 42 persons have been arrested for their alleged roles in Covid-19 grant fraud. Eight of them have been convicted of cheating or forgery offences,” he added.

For the remaining 40 cases, investigations are still ongoing or they are pending the Attorney-General's Chambers’ advice or completion of court proceedings, Mr Shanmugam wrote in reply to a parliamentary question.

Mr Murali Pillai, Member of Parliament (MP) for Bukit Batok, had asked about the number of cases involving the abuse, misuse or fraudulent application of all Covid-19 government grants and payouts.

The MP also asked how much has been recovered, as well as whether the Ministry of Home Affairs will provide a dedicated whistleblower channel to uncover more of such cases and set up a separate agency to investigate them.

In his reply, Mr Shanmugam said that the reports received by the police involving government funds amounted to about S$1.7 million.

“Not all S$1.7 million had been disbursed. The amount disbursed was lower as the agencies had managed to detect the fraud early.”

Of the 17 reports for which investigations have concluded, they involved government funds amounting to about S$68,000. Of this, about S$31,000 had been disbursed and S$7,000 had been recovered.

He added that for the remaining reports, the investigations are still ongoing so the amount disbursed cannot be disclosed.

As for setting up a dedicated whistleblower channel as well as a separate agency for such fraud cases, Mr Shanmugam said that this was “not necessary”.

“Within the Commercial Affairs Department, there is a team called the Public Institutional Fraud Division that investigates fraud in the public sector, including the abuse or fraudulent application of government grants such as the Covid-19 grants.”

Anyone who knows of the abuse or fraudulent application of Covid-19 grants may submit the information online via the police’s I-Witness e-service or make a police report.

“The public is familiar with these existing channels for reporting crimes. In addition, some of the agencies administering grants have also established channels to obtain information from the public on abuse or malpractices,” Mr Shanmugam said.