Oral Answer by Ministry of National Development on setting up of COVID-19 facilities

Jun 5, 2020

Mr Pritam Singh: To ask the Minister for National Development (a) whether a tender was waived for the construction of all Government Quarantine Facilities (GQF), Community Recovery Facilities (CRF) and Community Care Facilities (CCF); (b) if so, whether this was due to time constraint or other reasons; (c) whether all such construction works were planned to be cost recovery or below cost engagements; (d) what price reasonableness test was applied; (e) whether attempts were made to explore whether other event and exhibition construction firms were able and keen to undertake the engagement; and (f) whether further requisitions of GQFs, CRFs and CCFs are necessary and whether the engagements will be done on a cost recovery or below cost basis.

Answer:

The Government has responded swiftly to put in place a range of facilities to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. For Government Quarantine Facilities (GQFs) as well as dedicated facilities for Stay Home Notice or SHN requirements, we have made use of the capacity in existing Government chalets and hotels. In the case of hotels, we benchmarked the quotes provided by the hotel operators and negotiated for competitive rates, taking into account the prevailing market conditions.  
 
For Community Care Facilities (CCFs) and Community Recovery Facilities (CRFs), apart from using ready live-in accommodation like army camps and students’ residences, we also had to prepare new facilities in a very short time. We therefore moved quickly to fit out the Changi Exhibition Centre, Singapore Expo, Big Box, former ITE site at Ang Mo Kio, vacant factories and Tanjong Pagar terminal with beds and partitions, and in some cases tentages, to quickly house the patients. We now know from experience that we did all this not a moment too soon because we were able to get the capacity in place to look after quite a large number of infected patients without overwhelming our healthcare system.

The contracting of hotels and the construction of fit-out works were undertaken under Emergency Procurement, as provided for under the Government Procurement Rules, where urgent purchases have to be made in a pandemic outbreak and there is insufficient time to follow the normal procurement rules. The Emergency Procurement procedure allows for tenders to be waived and for contracts to be directly awarded to vendors with the necessary experience, expertise and resources to get the job done within a short period of time. 

Notwithstanding the waiver of tender under such Emergency Procurement, all the agencies recognise the need for accountability in the use of public funds. All decisions for the setting up of CCFs and CRFs are therefore approved by the Multi Ministry Taskforce. The agencies will ensure that the quotes from the commercial partners are reasonable by comparing against market benchmarks, scrutinise the invoices and ensure that the works meet the standards required by the Government before processing the payments. In some cases, we have been able to get private sector companies to support the projects on a cost-recovery basis as part of their contributions to the community. 

The Government will continue to partner different stakeholders including private sector companies, to ensure an effective whole-of-society response to Covid-19, while maintaining a prudent and disciplined approach in the use of public funds.