Clarification by Senior Parliamentary Secretary to Minister for Social and Family Development
Ministry of Social and Family DevelopmentSpeakers
Summary
This clarification concerns Senior Parliamentary Secretary Eric Chua addressing an apparent discrepancy in ComCare disbursement figures highlighted by the Leader of the Opposition. Senior Parliamentary Secretary Eric Chua explained that the Supporting Lower-Income Households Trends Report follows a calendar year, whereas ComCare annual reports utilize a financial year. He also revealed that the Ministry of Social and Family Development discovered reporting errors in the FY2021 and FY2022 ComCare annual reports while preparing for the Committee of Supply. A corrigenda was subsequently submitted to Parliament to rectify understated payments, noting that the $112.5 million figure cited in the trends report should have been $122.5 million. He concluded that while reporting errors occurred, the primary reason for the data difference remains the distinct tracking periods of calendar and financial years.
Transcript
7.53 pm
The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social and Family Development (Mr Eric Chua): Speaker, Sir, with your permission, may I make a clarification with regards to a supplementary question posed by the Leader of the Opposition on the 3 March Sitting?
Mr Speaker: Go ahead.
Mr Eric Chua: Sir, on Monday, 3 March 2025, the Leader of the Opposition asked in his supplementary question for an explanation of an apparent discrepancy between the ComCare disbursement amounts reported in FY2022 annual report and Ministry of Social and Family Development's (MSF's) Supporting Lower-Income Households Trends Report published in 2024.
I would like to clarify that the data in the trends report is reported on a calendar year basis whereas the data in the ComCare annual reports is reported on a financial year basis. But to be complete, I would also like to highlight that the Ministry has issued a correction to the FY2021 and FY2022 ComCare annual reports, which were earlier presented to Parliament.
On Friday, 28 February, when preparing for the MSF Committee of Supply, the MSF team reported to their director that there was an error in the FY2021 and FY2022 ComCare annual reports. A corrigenda has since been submitted to Parliament and published.
In summary, the total amount of ComCare payments in FY2021 were understated. Hence, the $112.5 million figure cited in the trends report should have been $122.5 million.
Nevertheless, the reason for the difference cited in the supplementary question is that the ComCare annual reports refer to the financial year, whereas the trends report refers to the calendar year.
Mr Speaker: Deputy Leader of the House.