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

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A senior officer at the Ministry of Health Holdings (MOHH) 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 was 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 occassions.

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

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.”