Senior officer of MOHH quits after failing to declare conflict of interest

SINGAPORE - A senior officer at the MOHHoldings (previously known as Health Corporation of Singapore) has resigned after she failed to declare that her cousin was a senior executive of a vendor company.

Miss Adelaide Chang, who was director of corporate communications, resigned last week even before her services could be terminated, reported The Straits Times (ST).

She was part of a three-member tender committee in charge of awarding work to the firm. It comprised of two members from other divisions and Miss Chang was roped in because the services they were going to hire were for her department.

ST understands that the tender was for developing the brand identity and new logo for MOHH, which employs all medical officers serving their bond. It is currently working to set up Singapore’s national online medical portal that will eventually allow doctors to access their patients’ medical records.

MOHH did not disclose the value of the tender in question.

ST reported that Miss Chang had also given work to this company in question on several other occasions.

MOHH released a statement on Wednesday night saying that it accepted her resignation without requiring her to serve notice.

It said: “MOHH took the decision to terminate her services, and met her to communicate these matters. However, Miss Chang proffered her resignation instead.”

“While there was no evidence of fraud or criminal wrongdoing, the failure to declare the conflict of interest was a clear non-compliance with company policy.”

MOHH has a strict policy requiring staff to declare their interests in relation to those with whom it has dealings.

However, it said Miss Chang categorically stated on July 3: “I declare I have no conflict of interest with the (said) vendor.”

About MOH Holdings

MOHH described its roles and responsibilities on its website as follows:

"MOHH (previously known as Health Corporation of Singapore) is the holding company of Singapore’s public healthcare assets. It operated largely as a dormant holding company until it was recently restructured to address systems-level gaps in our public healthcare system. MOHH today provides systems-level strategising and coordination and facilitates collaboration across clusters/healthcare institutions. In doing so, it enhances overall public healthcare system performance, while ensuring closer alignment to MOH’s vision, mission and priorities. Where possible, MOHH also seeks to leverage on synergies and economies of scale across the entire healthcare spectrum, thereby enhancing operational efficiency of the public healthcare sector in the long run."

"MOHH currently undertakes strategic initiatives for MOH and the public healthcare institutions."

maryanns@sph.com.sg