Question

Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry what caused the errors that resulted in the wrongful Jobs Support Scheme payouts of $370 million.

Written Answer by Minister for Trade and Industry Mr Chan Chun Sing

1. The incorrect Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) payouts resulted from errors in the tagging of business reopening dates for some businesses, which was used for the computation of the JSS payouts. As the processes for the resumption of business activities had to be implemented at short notice, MTI used existing systems and manual processes to grant approvals for businesses to reopen. Unfortunately, in so doing, mistakes were made with the reopening dates and concomitantly the JSS payouts.