Governments around the world are under great pressure to deliver services to citizens and businesses quickly, accurately, and efficiently.  At the same time, citizens and businesses are demanding that government leaders uncover and minimise possible vulnerabilities in existing programmes, as well as investigate and prosecute crime when it occurs, as countries begin to recover from the pandemic.

This tension is driving innovation – using data analytics – to allow quick delivery with strong integrity.  Programme Integrity can be implemented by altering current programmes or creating new ones that are sufficiently resilient against fraud, waste, and abuse.

When adopting new programmes, and allocating funding, governments can prevent harmful long-term impacts and be better prepared for future risks by focusing on monitoring, oversight, and design. This applies especially to those technology-inclined programmes or projects. As a result, the funds can achieve their goals and achieve the anticipated outcomes.

Governments have begun to invest considerably in analytics and data to explore and manage the dangers brought by digitisation, particularly as nations look to be more inclusive. There is a significant trend to invest in pandemic-related data analytics and innovative technologies to operate more economically, efficiently and effectively to prevent and detect fraud, waste and abuse in the government sector.

Data analytics boosts productivity, efficiency and revenue. Analysing data sets allows an organisation to know where it can optimise its processes to increase cost-effectiveness. Areas that are unnecessarily hoarding a company’s resources can be identified and decisions can be made about technologies that can reduce operational and production costs.

Shaun Barry, Global Director, Fraud & Security Intelligence, SAS, revealed in an exclusive interview with Mohit Sagar, Group Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, OpenGov Asia, that data and analytics are governments’ secret weapons to deal with fraud and scams in the digital era and is essential in any public sector fraud management strategy.

“There is no longer this trade-off between speed and accuracy; you can-do real-time fraud detection in sub-seconds. And you can also use analytics on the vector side, to be able to use artificial intelligence or machine learning to look for patterns that government leaders may have never thought existed or did not know were happening,” says Barry.

The heart of the response that government leaders should have is to adopt data and analytics in real-time to be able to enforce and promote integrity throughout society.

Agencies should roll out data and analytics initiatives to incorporate controls in their accounting and disbursement systems in real-time with great deliberation and must be able to keep up with the volume or number of transactions.

Countries that have performed well in terms of integrity are those who have planned for it – it does not occur by luck or by accident; they have built integrity into their systems. As governments roll out new programmes or evaluate how their present programmes are managed, they must ensure that honesty is at the forefront and the centre of everything.

“What does integrity do? It builds trust among people and it helps to make sure that these people and businesses trust the government and recognise that it is a force for good in society,” Barry emphatically states.

Governments around the world are under great pressure to uncover and minimise possible vulnerabilities in existing programmes, as well as investigate and prosecute crime when it occurs, as countries begin to recover from the pandemic. Programme integrity can be implemented by altering current programmes or creating new ones that are sufficiently resilient against fraud, waste and abuse.

When adopting new programmes and allocating funding, governments can prevent harmful long-term impacts and be better prepared for future risks by focusing on monitoring, oversight and design. This applies especially to those technology-inclined programmes or projects.

3 Vs that Increased Significantly because of Digitisation

According to Barry, 3 Vs were the main reasons for the drastic changes in the government sector – Volume, Velocity and Vector.

The Volume of transactions in and for governments has increased substantially as services move online; subsequently, the volume of fraudulent transactions is increasing as services are being digitised.  Fraudsters attempt to use volume to their advantage – hiding bogus claims among the millions of valid transactions that governments process.

Velocity is the speed at which those transactions come. They are coming literally at the speed of light because of the digitisation of services that governments rolled out, especially during the pandemic.

Simultaneously, the speed of fraud is increasing exponentially.  As governments undergo digital transformation – moving more services to electronic channels – fraud schemes can be perpetrated instantaneously.

Vector deals with where the threats are coming from. There are state actors who are targeting governments and programmes, there are non-state actors and there are organised crime syndicates. Primarily, these are not the result of mistakes made by individuals or corporations, even though these still exist wherever it is indicated that the vector has shifted.

Fraud schemes are now being perpetrated by criminal networks and organised crime syndicates.  Fraudsters are creating synthetic identities with data stolen from breaches.  They probe for control weaknesses and exploit vulnerabilities.  This level of sophistication adds magnitude to fraud schemes and patterns.

Understanding the Context of Fraud, Waste and Abuse

Fraud in the government sector is a false representation or any deliberate misrepresentation intended to deprive a government.

Threats are accompanied by some indicators like a sudden spike or an unexpected surge in expenditure or unexplained entries or manipulated records in a certain programme area. The absence of substantiating documentation, unauthorised dealings or transactions using non-serialised numbers are reliable indicators of wrongdoing as well. Cash payments in abnormally huge amounts are red flags as is a lack of internal controls.

High employee turnover could lead to or indicate fraud. People may also notice posts on social media, where people are communicating about a method to cheat the system, a means to acquire money when they should not be able to.

Of course, it is vital to understand if these signs of poor operation practices, systemic issues or staff challenges. The answer is often a mix of all. Fraud can take place due to poor operational practices, systemic issues or staff challenges. However, even a robust internal control environment cannot guarantee that no fraud will take place within an organisation.

Traditional fraud management is no longer sufficient, and intelligence technology is needed to mitigate fraud. It would be best to combine technologies such as AI, behaviour analytics and data mining, combined with the auditor’s experience and policy checking to help mitigate risks.

SAS uses industry-leading data analytics and machine learning to monitor payments and non-monetary transactions, as well as events, enabling you to identify and respond to unwanted and suspicious behaviour in real-time.

The Pandemic and Trends in Cybersecurity

Barry is quick to point out that the pandemic has not caused an increase in fraud, but the digital response to the pandemic has created opportunities that fraudsters have taken advantage of it. Bad actors certainly were aware of the significant digitisation in governments and have exploited vulnerabilities.

In their haste to serve people and control the pandemic, governments around the globe rolled out relief programmes quickly and without normal controls, opening up a wider attack surface for bad actors. It is pertinent to note that the pandemic also accelerated the pre-existing trend of digital transformation in government – yielding more opportunities for fraud.

COVID-19 caused huge disruptions which organisations across all sectors are still dealing with – all while fraud chances have multiplied and become more difficult to detect.

Bad actors are quickly growing in strength and effectiveness. Nearly 70% of organisations experiencing fraud reported that the most disruptive incidents came via an external attack or collusion between external and internal sources.

Many employees are now working in a less secure setting as a result of the unexpected move to remote and hybrid working environments. This has resulted in a dramatic increase in internet activity, making it harder to monitor and restrict fraudulent activities.

According to the Cybersource 2021 Global Fraud Report, there has been an increase in fraud attacks and the rate of fraud, especially for organisations based outside of North America. Companies based in the Asia Pacific region have been hit hardest, prompting an increased focus on fraud management and increased spending in this region.

Barry understands that citizens want good information – relevant and timely – not just raw data. They are looking to give leaders actional intelligence and deep insights at the right time. This allows for better decision-making that considers the risks and rewards comprehensively. The public sector must now implement and strengthen controls with robust cyber resilience initiatives.

Public Sector Fraud Management in the New Normal

PwC’s Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2022 revealed that across organisations of all sizes, including the government and public sector, cybercrime poses the most significant threat, followed by asset misappropriation and customer fraud.

Even before the pandemic, the Asia Pacific region faced the highest incidence of medical claims fraud, according to a global claims fraud survey by reinsurance firm RGA.  “Survey results suggest that the global incidence of claims fraud is 3.58%, with high claims fraud incidence in the Asia Pacific region.”  That trend is widely expected to have increased during the pandemic.

The rise of digital fraud has forced organisations to work hard to enhance technical capabilities and implement more robust internal controls as well as reporting measures.

In the government and public sector, this fraud trend also makes the need to upgrade the government’s fraud management and technology even more crucial to prevent losses and misuse of funds and safeguard the government’s integrity as fraudsters are moving targets and becoming more specialised and professional. As soon as an agency identifies a scheme and puts in controls to mitigate it, the fraudsters quickly find new ways to exploit the system.

From a market growth perspective, the global market size of fraud detection and prevention solutions is predicted to grow from US$ 30.65 billion in 2022 to US$ 129.17 billion in 2029. Governments across countries, including countries in the Asia Pacific region, invest in implementing advanced fraud prevention solutions.

Investment in government fraud technology for detection and prevention can deliver big payoffs – typically 10 to 100 times ROI.

Border Protection During the Pandemic

“I believe that governments have increased their response to the pandemic to safeguard their borders. They must know the commodities and services entering or leaving their country,” Barry observes.

Of course, borders are only one of the many areas in which nations are beginning to invest in response to the pandemic. Governments across the world are beginning to extensively deploy analytics and big data solutions to assess the risks they may face at the border or within.

From the citizen’s viewpoint, people are concerned with financial fraud and want to be confident that the government collects the required customs duties, so those funds can be ploughed back into ongoing national development.

On the immigration side, people are aware of the potential risks associated with illegal immigration, overstays, as well as the risks of terrorism and contraband. Barry shared many nations are undergoing massive reformation that involves examining the entirety of their Immigration and Customs procedures. It employs and integrates real-time analytics to precisely identify these types of risks.

“There is certainly a very big trend that we’re seeing in the market, where government leaders, especially at borders, are investing in analytics coming from the pandemic,” Barry acknowledged.

Customs and border control are important operations not only because they have wide-ranging implications for a country, but also require close cooperation between many organisations to be truly effective.

Long before the pandemic, the ASEAN region has always been one of the world’s largest trading blocs, placing its member states at greater risk of various transnational crimes. The ASEAN Political-Security Community Blueprint 2025 prioritises and encourages ASEAN countries to strengthen cooperation on border management in accordance with respective domestic laws, rules, regulations and policies and to jointly address matters of common concern, including forgeries of identification and travel documents, as well as to explore the use of relevant technologies to manage borders to stem the flow of potential terrorists and criminals, and to coordinate border patrols and inspections.

When COVID-19 emerged in 2019, many countries imposed strict border control measures to mitigate as well as slow the spread of the virus. As global travel restrictions begin to ease and countries reopen their borders, governments expect border control measures to be different in the post-pandemic world.

The effects of the pandemic will remain as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and experts predict that the disease will presumably become endemic. Border control systems are facing more complex challenges, and border officials have the monumental task of managing dynamic health control measures to ensure safer travel to protect their citizens. Therefore, governments have to rethink and redesign how border controls operate.

Advanced data analytics and automation technologies can support government agencies by giving them relevant information to make better decisions on a real-time basis. Once data is collected from multiple sources, artificial intelligence or machine learning is applied to collected and historical data to develop real-time watchlist management, risk assessment and investigation management systems. The automated system can accommodate unstructured data in different forms and from multiple sources.

Adopting a risk assessment engine that allows automation as part of the modernisation, therefore, helps governments ascertain the risks and give them relevant information to make better decisions on a real-time basis while adjusting to the new reality and strengthening recovery.

Automation is not to replace customs inspectors and immigration officers, but to enhance border control management. Data analytics help turn the data into meaningful information quickly, so immigration officers can focus on the outcomes of the analysis.

SAS Support for the Public Sector

SAS has the tools, expertise capability and experience to determine the best strategy for effective fraud detection and prevention in agencies. They are one of the leaders in the space of advanced analytics and AI supporting the public sector. SAS helps governments in predictability and manage risk and identify opportunities by leveraging AI and Analytics. Everything SAS does is designed to empower better decisions.

As fraudsters get more sophisticated with their tactics, agencies are also required to get more sophisticated at fighting back. Digital fraud needs an approach with a faster, more accurate response to new threats.

The key strategy is to move from a reactive to a proactive approach. The SAS Detection & Investigation for Government Solution proactively prevents fraud, waste, abuse and improper payments. It provides a holistic view of fraud based on multisource data points and takes a multifaceted approach to detect hidden relationships and seemingly unrelated events.

Advances in fraud detection technologies can give agencies a more accurate and efficient arsenal than ever for attacking fraud and financial crimes. Sophisticated technology-based approaches can eradicate fraud and find it before the losses mount. Whether it’s contract fraud or Medicaid fraud, a criminal act or the sole attempt of a dedicated fraudster, fraud can be discovered and prevented.

Here are 3 essentials for winning the battle against fraud, waste and abuse:

Barry is firmly convinced that utilising analytics in daily operations will spark innovative discoveries that propel the advancement of citizen outcomes and experiences –  ones that dismantle siloes, deliver on mandates and offer efficiencies.

There are a plethora of ways that data analytics can be valuable – to what extent relies largely relies on the organisation. But at its foundation, Barry says, it’s all about assisting the organisation in making the best business decisions to serve citizens.

The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has launched an application under the Baal Swaraj portal to help rehabilitate children in street situations (CiSS). Baal Swaraj enables the real-time online tracking and monitoring of children in need of care and protection.

According to a press release, the portal is a first-of-its-kind initiative in India. The CiSS application will be used to receive and log CiSS data from every state and union territory in the country. It will track a child’s rescue and rehabilitation process.

The portal has two functions: COVID-19 care and CiSS. The COVID-19 care link caters to children who have lost either or both parents due to COVID-19 or otherwise post-March 2020. It follows a six-stage framework. In the first stage, through the portal, the child’s details are collected. The second stage is filing a social investigating report (SIR), which investigates the child’s background. The District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) from the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) supervises this process by talking to and counselling the child. An Individual Care Plan (ICP) is formulated in the third stage. The fourth stage involves getting an order from the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) based on the SIR submitted to the committee. The fifth stage is allocating the schemes and benefits that the beneficiary can avail of.  The sixth stage consists of a checklist to evaluate the progress or follow up on the report.

Reporting a child under the CiSS link will lead to a form that will ask for the child’s and the informant’s details. Once registered, a registration ID is generated along with the contact information of the concerned DCPO to follow up. The DCPO will get information about the child on the portal’s dashboard and will take the case forward.

The press release mentioned the application also provides a platform for professionals and organisations to provide any help that they can to children in need. Open shelters, counselling services, medical services, sponsorships, deaddiction services, education services, legal/paralegal services, volunteering, student volunteering, identification of hotspot, identification of CiSS, or any other assistance may be offered.

To provide professional help, one must visit the official website, click on “Citizen Portal” and go to “Providing Services to help CiSS”. Select “For Individual/Professional” to opt to provide a service as an individual or select “For Organisations & Institutions” to opt to provide as an organisation. Fill in all the required details and submit. Once registered, a registration ID is generated along with the contact information of the DCPO of the state or union territory. The participants, including informants, professionals, or organisations, will be awarded a digital certificate acknowledging their contribution after the DCPO assesses the case.

The release stated that the application embodies Article 51 (A) of the Indian Constitution as it provides a platform to the public and organisations catering to the welfare of the children to report any child in need of assistance. NCPCR is an Indian statutory body established by an Act of Parliament, the Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005.

The Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare has launched a mobile phone version of Bhavishya, an artificial intelligence-enabled common portal for pensioners and elder citizens. The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh, recently stated that the portal will aid the seamless processing, tracking, and disbursal of pensions.

According to a press release, the AI-supported portal will send automatic alerts to pensioners and enable users to submit input, suggestions, and grievances. Considering that a large number of retirees are from central armed police forces (CAPFs) who serve in far-flung areas of the country, the software is expected to improve ease of processing, speed, and accuracy. Government officials will intermittently conduct pre-retirement workshops to counsel citizens and learn from their experiences.

Bhavishya was made mandatory for all central government departments in 2017 and is currently implemented in the main secretariat of 97 ministries/departments. Out of the 162,000 pension payment orders (PPOs) processed so far, over 96,000 were e-PPOs issued through Bhavishya.

Bhavishya 8.0 was released in August 2020 with a new feature to PUSH e-PPOs in DigiLocker. DigiLocker is the government’s digitisation online service that allows citizens to store important and official documents. Bhavishya is the first application to use the Digilocker ID-based PUSH technology. 3,892 e-PPOs have been pushed to Digilocker so far. Bhavishya allows retiring employees to link their DigiLocker account to the portal to get an e-PPO. The system has now been made available as a mobile application. Since the software is fed with the latest pension rules, the calculation of pension is accurate and as per rule and not based on the interpretation of the staff concerned, the release added.

Bhavishya has ensured the end-to-end digitisation of the pension processing and payment in line with the government’s objective of enhanced transparency, complete digitisation, and better service delivery. The government has been ramping up digital transformation efforts across all sectors to attain these objectives. Last month, the country launched a single national portal for biotech researchers and start-ups that are seeking regulatory approval for biological research and development projects. The Biological Research Regulatory Approval Portal (BioRRAP) will allow stakeholders to see the approvals accorded against a particular application through a unique BioRRAP ID.

As OpenGov Asia reported, BioRRAP is the first public mechanism that tracks requisite regulatory approvals for research proposals online. The portal will keep researchers notified on the stage of their application in terms of regulatory clearances. It allows users to see preliminary information on all research work carried out by a particular researcher/organisation. It will strengthen interdepartmental cooperation and enhance accountability and efficacy in the functioning of agencies that regulate and issue permissions for biological research.

Meanwhile, the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), under the Ministry of Education, launched a portal to streamline the recognition process of teacher education programmes for higher education institutes (HEI) and teacher education institutes (TEIs). The portal automates the entire recognition certificate process, including inviting applications for courses and issuing recognition orders to inspect the educational institution. The applications for the recently launched 4 Year Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) will be processed on this portal.

The Philippines’ Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has inaugurated a state-of-the-art Data Centre, a new building that contains the Bureau’s Electronic Invoicing/Receipting System (EIS) systems and other data components. The EIS Data Centre is part of the Bureau’s preparations for the upcoming EIS pilot deployment, which is part of the BIR’s Digital Transformation Programme.

The DATA Centre follows a provision of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act that directs the BIR to require identified taxpayers to issue electronic receipts or sales or commercial invoices in lieu of manual receipts or sales or commercial invoices within five (5) years of the Act’s enactment and upon the establishment of a system capable of storing and processing the required data.

The EIS pilot project was made possible by a grant from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) at the Philippines’ Department of Finance’s request. The Agency also contributed software and equipment to the BIR, including servers, storage, and peripherals, as well as 270 PCs, 130 laptops, and 130 printers.

BIR digital initiatives to expedite tax filing

BIR has developed the Electronic One-Time Transaction (eONETT) System to provide another option for filing returns and paying taxes related to property transfers. The eONETT System is a web-based application that allows taxpayers to transact ONETT at any time and from any location if they have an internet connection.

It is an online platform where taxpayers (buyers/sellers of real estate and real estate developers) can submit their application for Electronic Certificate Authorising Registration (eCAR), along with the necessary documents, and pay the corresponding tax due and other fees.

The System automates the generation of the ONETT Computation Sheet and its related tax returns. Initially, only transactions involving the taxable sale of capital or ordinary real estate are available.

Furthermore, the eONETT System’s facilities must be used by authorised BIR personnel in the processing, review, and approval of online applications, as well as the generation and printing/issuance of eCAR for the taxable sale of capital or ordinary real property.

Once the eCAR has been approved by the appropriate BIR official, taxpayers will be notified to download and print their Claim Slip and present it to the appropriate office, along with a physical copy of the previously uploaded documents, to obtain a copy of their eCAR.

Meanwhile, DiTTU, which stands for Digital Tax Tulungan Upgraded, is another one of the BIR’s innovations that makes the process of filing an ITR for taxpayers as simple as sending a text message on their mobile devices. Taxpayers are now able to complete their Individual Tax Returns (ITR) using a computer tablet that is handed to them by the district office.

They are responsible for encoding their own tax information using the tablet, which eliminates the need for manual completion of tax forms and eliminates the need for manual computation of tax obligations.

In a couple of minutes, tax returns are instantly printed, and the tax payable is automatically computed. Under DiTTU, it is also simple to monitor the daily summary of tax returns filed and the revenue collected by Revenue Collection Officers.

In addition, Electronic Assistance or e-Assistance is a concept designed to encourage taxpayers, particularly those who do not have time to attend the district office, to file their ITR from the comfort of their own homes by utilising the district office’s e-Lounge services. Under this innovation, taxpayers who utilise the link supplied by a district office receive assistance electronically.

Vietnam and Australia discussed partnership opportunities in technology and trade during a recent forum held in Ho Chi Minh City by Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), the Saigon Innovation Hub, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

The event, part of a programme to strengthen economic cooperation between the Vietnamese and Australian governments, aimed to support the business communities in each country to cooperate in transferring solutions and technologies in clean energy, high-tech agriculture, and digital transformation. Participants at the event introduced several technology-based solutions for fields like trade, climate change response, and healthcare. They also explored the application of blockchain in agricultural product traceability and for smart agricultural solutions.

Australia is willing to invite Vietnamese firms to explore new opportunities in clean energy as well as provide opportunities to collaborate with Australian partners in technology transfer. The cooperation programmes will help strengthen bilateral relations and reinforce trade and investment partnerships between the two countries.

Since 2018, the two sides have worked together in researching and announcing reports on Vietnam’s digital economy and evaluating the contributions of innovation to Vietnam’s socio-economic development. They have also reached a series of cooperation agreements to promote innovation and technology transfer. According to the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, Bui The Duy, businesses from both countries will continue to foster their connections, contributing to bolstering economic cooperation between Vietnam and Australia.

An official from the University of Technology Sydney said that the majority of enterprises in Vietnam have the demand to explore and access new technologies to increase their productivity and engage more deeply in global supply chains, providing products and services with higher economic value. However, the firms need further support during the process of accessing information and advanced technologies. The organisation of the forum was expected to enhance the capacity of technology application and transfer as well as provide professional consultancy to businesses from both sides.

The forum reaffirmed Vietnam’s interest in Australia’s new technologies, innovation, and investment. The UST Joint Technology and Innovation Research Centre in Vietnam, the first of its kind between the two sides, is opening up cooperation potential and opportunities for both Australian and Vietnamese partners.

Vietnam has been working with a number of countries to foster scientific and economic relationships. To achieve the goals set out in the national digital transformation strategy, the country has entered into several agreements to develop and deploy emerging technologies to improve the quality of public services and their delivery.

In May, Vietnam announced it would cooperate with Thailand in information infrastructure, cloud computing, social network management, digital transformation, and the digital economy. As OpenGov Asia reported, officials proposed that Thailand and Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) intensify information sharing, promote digital collaboration, enhance cooperation on digital transformation, and sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to facilitate joint activities in a post-pandemic world. A representative suggested that the two sides establish a mechanism to exchange and share experiences of digital transformation and digital economic development in line with each country’s growth strategy.

Both sides will also ramp up cooperation in fake news management to establish a safe and healthy online environment. The Vietnamese ambassador proposed that Thailand create favourable conditions for Vietnamese information technology enterprises to invest and do business in the country. He suggested that the two ministries resume working visits and meetings at all levels.

The Energy Market Authority (EMA) has extended its efforts to strengthen Singapore’s energy security and resilience until 31 March 2023, considering persistent volatility in global energy markets and the situation in Ukraine. EMA will keep an eye on the situation and, depending on the global energy situation and its impact on Singapore may consider extending the restrictions further.

The globe has been experiencing an energy shortage since September 2021. Due to increasing demand and limited supply, global gas prices have risen dramatically. With the continuing crisis in Ukraine and the seasonal increase in energy consumption in the coming winter months, energy markets are projected to remain unpredictable. In preparation for the winter, countries in Asia and Europe have begun to secure fuel supplies, particularly gas.

Because Singapore relies on imported natural gas to generate nearly all its power, global energy market volatility will affect the domestic market. Domestic electricity rates will rise as global fuel prices rise.

While businesses cannot protect consumers from increasing electricity costs, it is critical that global volatility does not interrupt electricity supply or impede energy market functioning.

The EMA’s mission is to maintain a dependable and secure energy supply, promote effective energy market competition, and nurture a vibrant energy industry in Singapore, thus it has implemented several steps to safeguard the country’s energy supply and ensure the smooth operation of the wider energy sector since October 2021:

These steps have helped to secure enough fuel and energy supply while also stabilising the Uniform Singapore Energy Price (USEP) at about the cost of electricity production – $350/MWh for the first five months of 2022.

Through the Temporary Electricity Contracting Support Scheme, the EMA has worked with electricity retailers and generation firms to help large consumers acquire fixed pricing plans and retail contracts with major fixed price components.

Consumers with typical monthly use of 4MWh to 50MWh will continue to be offered longer-term fixed-price plans. The EMA will continue to constantly monitor the situation and, if necessary, take new actions.

Furthermore, starting on 17 June 2022, the contracting window for July 2022 will be open. More information on the various electricity contracting possibilities is available at https://go.gov.sg/electricity-contracting-options.

The government will continue to assist eligible consumers who are facing rising costs. The Household Support Package, which was introduced as part of Budget 2022, will assist eligible households in defraying the costs of higher electricity bills by doubling the amount of their quarterly U-Save vouchers in 2022. Businesses in need of financing can take advantage of Enterprise Singapore’s loan programmes.

The EMA is committed to ensuring that Singapore’s power supply remains secure and reliable, as well as to assisting consumers during this time. It also urged consumers to contribute to energy conservation. Energy-efficient appliances and energy-saving habits can help households reduce their energy consumption.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released the National Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) Strategy to enhance engineering training, tools, and practices to construct cyber-resilient clean energy systems. The Strategy emphasises early adoption of cybersecurity technology in designed systems to decrease cyber risks and vulnerabilities, especially foreign actor threats.

Pursuant to congressional direction, the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER)-led Securing Energy Infrastructure Executive Task Force (SEI ETF) developed the National CIE Strategy, building on foundational work developed at Idaho National Laboratory.

“Building a powerful and resilient grid that can withstand the full gamut of modern cyber threats begins at the design level,” said Jennifer M. Granholm, U.S. Secretary of Energy.

She added that through this strategy, the DOE lays out a plan to ensure that the once-in-a-generation investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act safeguards the energy sector and delivers a stronger, cleaner electric grid.

The National CIE Strategy outlines the application of cybersecurity technology throughout the engineering design lifecycle of grid development. It also assures that automated grid systems are built to be resilient and cyber security.

The Strategy is structured around five pillars: Awareness, Education, Development, Current Infrastructure, and Future Infrastructure — and tries to design out cyber weaknesses to lessen or eradicate them. Even if a cyberattack is successful, the CIE Strategy aims to reduce the likelihood of interruptions to the nation’s essential energy infrastructure.

The National Defence Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2020 directed DOE to convene a multi-stakeholder working group, comprised of senior technical leaders from across government, industry, academia, and the DOE National Laboratories, to develop a new strategy to defend the nation’s energy infrastructure against cybersecurity threats, vulnerabilities, and risks in the most critical industrial control systems.

CESER established the Securing Energy Infrastructure Executive Task Force to lead the creation of the National CIE Strategy, discover new classes of security vulnerabilities in industrial control systems, and evaluate the technology and standards utilised to secure industrial control systems.

The industrial control systems that operate the vital energy infrastructure are subject to increasingly severe and complex cyberattacks by tenacious enemies. Energy systems must be designed to withstand purposeful cyber penetration, exploitation, and misuse to prevent interruptions to the nation’s vital energy services.

Traditional engineering includes a substantial amount of safety and failure mode analysis, but these risk management approaches rarely account for the threats posed by an intelligent and capable adversary with the intention of denying, disrupting, or destroying a critical function through cyber means. Most cybersecurity solutions are “bolted on” towards the end of the engineering lifecycle, as opposed to being fundamentally designed into the system.

CIE is an emerging technique for integrating cybersecurity into the idea, design, development, and operation of any physical system with digital connectivity, monitoring, or control. It employs design decisions and technical controls to minimise or even remove cyber-enabled attack vectors or to lessen the impact of an attack.

While specialised information technology and operational technology cybersecurity experts bring strong cybersecurity capabilities to securing today’s energy systems, many of the engineers and technicians who design and operate these energy systems lack the education and training necessary to engineer systems for cybersecurity from the outset, in the same way, they engineer systems for safety.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) together with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has launched an open financial education and action initiative tag as SME Financial Empowerment (SFE) for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Asia and Africa.

To help MSMEs thrive in the post-pandemic digital economy, the SFE intends to help them establish their core digital financial literacy skills and gain a good understanding of cross-border financial services relevant to MSMEs. The programme was launched in collaboration with market partners in Asia and Africa, beginning with Ghana, India, the Philippines, and Singapore, and will benefit over 400,000 MSMEs in these regions.

An empowered MSME is essential to an equitable and sustainable digital economy. Such enablement begins with digital economy literacy.

– Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore

The affordable, bite-sized learning programme offered by SFE, he added, is the result of a collaborative effort between financial institutions and the public and private sectors. Through the foundational and global financial literacy programmes, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Asia and Africa will gain new abilities to utilise networks, financial, and digital resources to expand their businesses abroad.

SFE is a global platform that connects domestic SME ecosystems and catalyses cross-border trade, financing, and digital services. It is an inclusive and organised programme that is conducted on a web portal.

Furthermore, the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), and the Global FinTech Institute (GFI) are among the other important supporters of the SFE. The SFE’s goal for 2022 is to help MSMEs in three areas: essential financial digital skillsets, MSME financial services, and digital economy access and growth.

The first phase of the programme will consist of two learning modules that will focus on essential financial digital skillsets such as (a) Foundational Financial Literacy, which will cover basic financial concepts and financial products important to MSMEs; and (b) Global Financial Literacy, which will prepare MSMEs to connect to the digital economy and expand internationally by leveraging networks, financial services, fintech solutions, and digital tools.

Additional learning modules will be offered in subsequent instalments. Businesses will obtain a digitally verifiable certificate from SUSS and GFI upon completion of each module, granting access to financial services tools and information services via a resource portal.

Meanwhile, the SFE builds on a previous Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between MAS and IFC on the Financial Trust Corridor (FTC) initiative, which aims to promote greater financial knowledge sharing, financial trust, and financial inclusion for MSMEs and financial institutions in developing countries.

The FTC consists of a multi-party cross-border governance framework and trusted closed-loop digital infrastructure that governments and financial institutions from various countries can use to share verified information on foreign business counterparties and the financial institutions that support them. This information will facilitate funding access for companies engaged in international trade.

In many nations, SMEs account for up to 90 per cent of the business segment and up to 80 per cent of employment. However, the potential of SMEs is frequently hampered by knowledge gaps regarding digital processes and technologies. Through suitable training and digital finance skills, assisting SMEs to engage in the digital economy can generate productive and sustainable growth potential.

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