AGO flags S$9.7 million possible overpayment in HDB car park patrol contract

The Auditor-General's Office (AGO) released its Report of the Auditor-General for the financial year 2025/26 on 15 July 2026, raising 136 audit findings across government ministries, statutory boards and government-owned companies, of which 29 were assessed significant enough to detail in the report.

The Housing and Development Board (HDB) featured more prominently than any other single agency, with auditors covering housing priority and grant schemes, revenue collection, car park operations and procurement in their test checks.

Inadequate oversight of patrol and enforcement contractor

AGO examined car park patrol records for the year to 31 March 2025 under a contract worth S$61.88 million, running from November 2021 to January 2026, and found HDB did not adequately oversee the contractor engaged to patrol and enforce rules at its car parks.

Auditors found significant discrepancies, including patrol frequencies lower than required at some car parks, sizeable gaps between rostered and actual patrols, and concurrent clock-ins by the same personnel at different locations.

The contractor's own investigation, prompted after HDB raised the discrepancies, found its IT system for managing patrol personnel had access control weaknesses that had compromised the integrity of its records; the contractor has since lodged a police report.

Auditors also found the contractor had not complied with several audit requirements in its contract, such as engaging an independent party to audit its IT system before commissioning and carrying out anti-corruption checks every six months, with "no evidence that HDB had followed up with the contractor on the non-compliance."

A further review of records found multiple instances where a car park's patrol was logged as completed in under 10 seconds — "highly implausible," AGO said, given about half the car parks involved were multi-storey.

Based on HDB's own preliminary estimate, it may have overpaid the contractor S$9.7 million for patrol and enforcement work not performed.

Weaknesses in season parking applications and renewals

Auditors found weaknesses in HDB's eligibility checks for 228,751 Season Parking (SP) and Family Season Parking (FSP) transactions, worth S$24.99 million in revenue, over the three years to March 2025.

These included 30,199 transactions worth S$2.95 million approved for 2,534 applicants despite the applicant or their family member having died between 31 days and 26 years earlier, and a further S$21.58 million in transactions approved for applicants who were not the registered owner, occupier, tenant or subtenant of the flat or shop concerned — including 37,138 transactions by people with no HDB address at all, raising the possibility they should have paid the higher Tier 2 rate.

Another S$0.49 million in FSP transactions were approved where the family member being visited did not appear to live near the relevant car park, including 1,766 cases where the applicant and the family member shared the same address.

HDB explained that its system checked eligibility when a season parking pass was first issued, but did not reverify continued eligibility at each renewal, since renewals were "resident-centric" and addresses were assumed unchanged.

Separately, 1,585 commercial vehicles were charged incorrect, non-commercial SP rates across 10,922 transactions, resulting in an estimated S$1 million under-collection of fees.

Weaknesses in housing priority and grant schemes

AGO also reviewed the Married Child Priority Scheme (MCPS), the Proximity Housing Grant (PHG) and the CPF Housing Grant (CPFHG), and found HDB had been relying on its own internal records and applicant-declared addresses, rather than checking against the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority's (ICA) records, when assessing proximity and eligibility criteria.

Of 37,737 applications analysed, 37 MCPS and 27 PHG applications, worth S$0.47 million, did not meet the requirement that the flat be within 4km of the family member's home, mostly because the addresses on record were inaccurate.

A separate check of 47,534 applications found PHG or CPFHG worth S$0.17 million disbursed to six applicants who had already received the same grant before, due to a system programming error later found to have affected a further S$0.06 million.

AGO also found CPFHG worth S$0.12 million given to two applicants who exceeded the income ceiling, with HDB's own follow-up checks turning up another S$0.11 million in similarly erroneous disbursements traced to a system issue it had previously tried, but failed, to fully fix.

The most significant finding concerned the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP), during which flat owners and, for PHG, their family members must continue living at or near the flat.

Auditors found addresses on record did not match ICA data for 1,619 approved applications, worth S$92.90 million in grants, raising doubts over compliance during the MOP.

Of a sample of 92 applications HDB investigated, 10 worth S$0.22 million were confirmed breaches, for which HDB has recovered the grants with accrued interest; it is still working through the remaining 1,527 applications.

Contract valuation and quotation irregularities

Separately, AGO test-checked 44 variation orders worth S$34.80 million across 14 Home Improvement Programme contracts, approved for S$525 million, and found errors in 19 orders across seven contracts managed by HDB's consultants — largely the use of incorrect rates — resulting in a S$1.02 million underpayment across five contracts and a S$0.25 million overpayment across four others.

Auditors also found possible irregularities in six quotations for star rate items worth S$72,900 across three variation orders, over which HDB has lodged a police report, and tell-tale signs that supporting documents worth S$1.43 million had been created or altered to make it appear checks had been carried out on time.

AGO noted that an HDB officer had asked the consultant involved to "tidy up all discrepancies" in the supporting documents before they were submitted for audit; HDB has said it will take disciplinary action against the staff responsible.

HDB's response

HDB said it takes AGO's findings seriously and has taken immediate steps to rectify the irregularities identified and strengthen its processes and controls.

On the patrol contract, it said it "has zero tolerance for any attempt to undermine the integrity of its enforcement process," and would recover in full the fees paid for services not rendered, alongside imposing administrative charges.

On season parking, HDB said it would introduce measures such as requiring applicants to declare their continued eligibility at renewal, and planned to implement a revamped season parking system by 2027.

On housing grants, it said it would introduce additional checks on enablers' residential addresses against ICA records and revise the terms of the PHG scheme to require enablers to update their addresses within 28 days of moving, while strengthening its broader monitoring framework.