That a man working with two accomplices could so easily outsmart the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore's (Iras) management review system to fraudulently secure a staggering $11.8 million of grants under the Productivity and Innovation Credit scheme is mind-boggling (Man pleads guilty to cheating Iras into giving $11.8m in grants, Jan 13).

The serious crimes have besmirched Iras' reputation as an institution entrusted with the collection and disbursement of public funds.

Accordingly, I believe Iras has a social obligation to publicly account for the failure of its system to detect such fraud, and assure the public that necessary steps have been taken or will be taken to render it more stringent and robust to prevent a recurrence.

Ang Ah Lay

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/forum/forum-iras-should-account-for-failure-to-detect-grant-fraud