Preliminary investigation shows Singpass outage not linked to CDC voucher redemption: GovTech

SINGAPORE: Singpass service has resumed after going down for many users on Tuesday (Jan 3) following the launch of the latest tranche of Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers.

Many users said early Tuesday afternoon that they were unable to log in to Singpass to claim the CDC vouchers.

But the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) said in a statement that evening that a "preliminary investigation does not suggest any correlation" between the Singpass outage and the redemption of CDC vouchers.

GovTech earlier noted in a tweet at about 2.50pm that some users may have encountered an error message when accessing digital services with Singpass.

"We are working to resolve the issue. Please try again later. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and will provide an update when the service has resumed. Thank you," GovTech said.

An error message on the CDC vouchers website read: "Singpass is temporarily unavailable. If you are unable to claim your vouchers, please try again later."

A message from GovTech posted on the Central Provident Fund Board's (CPF Board) said some users may experience difficulties accessing digital services with Singpass.

The messages were removed at about 3.40pm on Tuesday.

GovTech posted on its social media accounts at about 4pm that Singpass service has resumed.

"We are monitoring it closely. We apologise for any inconvenience caused," it wrote.

Responding to CNA's queries, a spokesperson from GovTech said the Singpass service was intermittent for users who were logging in via QR code.

"This disruption was confirmed at 12.23pm. Logging in to Singpass via shortcuts in Singpass app and ID/password were unaffected," the spokesperson said.

"This disruption was caused by the malfunction of a component that manages the session when users log in using QR code."

The Singpass service resumed at 2.41pm, and GovTech continued to monitor the performance of the system and perform necessary testing.

"We ensured that the system is stable before officially informing the public of service resumption at 3.56pm," the spokesperson added.

Facebook page Singapore Atrium Sale said on Tuesday afternoon that Singpass was down due to the surge of people trying to claim their CDC vouchers. Many people in the comments echoed the findings and said they could not log in as well.

The My Food Society Club Facebook page posted an update that read: "Singpass seems to be having some issues ... you might not be able to log in now."

Twitter user @douglasmun posted a tweet showing two errors. In the tweet, he said that "many (are) complaining cannot access Singpass for CDC and other services".