Re: Counter Strike by WP: WHY ONLY TARGET WP WHEN FAP ALSO HAD LAPSES IN AGO REPORT?
Like Hri Kumar implied PAP has privvileges............. period
Like Hri Kumar implied PAP has privvileges............. period
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PAP misAIMs, shoots into own foot. Better off dead by hara kiri.
- Thread starter Confuseous
- Start date
Re: Counter Strike by WP: WHY ONLY TARGET WP WHEN FAP ALSO HAD LAPSES IN AGO REPORT?
Source: The Alternative View
PAP Chairman Khaw Boon Wan needs to walk the talk and commit hara kiri, given the many lapses uncovered in statutory boards under his watch in MND, in the AGO Audit 2013/14 report.
Among these, an audit of the National Parks Board’s development of Gardens by the Bay turned up documents that were allegedly backdated to give the impression that they had existed when the transactions took place in order to satisfy AGO’s queries.
This was done by an NParks officer who had created and backdated 16 letters appearing to have been issued to suppliers from NParks. In addition to that, he asked for the suppliers to issue another 11 backdated letters and falsified another five.
This was done, said the officer, to “regularise gaps… for completeness of record.”
Source: The Alternative View
During its audit of statutory boards for the year 2013/4, the AGO uncovered that the AVA, a statutory board under the Ministry of Health helmed by PAP MP Gan Kim Yong, had squandered $152,800 to obtain on two projects to gain ISO (International Organization for Standardization) accreditation for its testing methods and facilities, only to realise later that the certification was unnecessary.
Source: The Alternative View
During its 2013/14 audit of ministries and statutory boards, the AGO uncovered that for a period of two years, MOH had doled out a total sum of $64,000 to the accounts of some 99 deceased Singaporeans.
Defending itself, the Ministry attributed this to erroneous data captured by an agent engaged to administer the Interim Disability Assistance Programme for the Elderly, and claimed that the errors have since been rectified and reimbursement obtained from the agent.
This in essence is what the PAP is now accusing AHPETC of: overpaying FMCC.
In the Workers' Party case, Sylvia Lim had the integrity to owe up to the mistake and says she bears personal responsibility.
But for MOH's lapse? Where was PAP minister Gan Kim Yong?
Source: The Alternative View
Background Story: AGO Finds Serious Irregularities In Public Fund Usage By MINDEF, CPF, NLB, MDA
The Central Provident Fund Board (CPF) was flagged by the Auditor's General's report as having 3 major lapses in the administration of schemes and programs.
In particular, there was insufficient oversight of the CPF contributions made for Operationally Ready National Service men during their ICT stints resulting in underpayment. Another lapse was in the lack of verification of erroneous Medisave claims made by medical institutions resulting in the overpayment from CPF member's Medisave accounts.
The third major lapse was in the CPF board's granting of Workfare Income Supplement on behalf of the MOM without having sufficient data on applicants. This resulted in several approvals of the scheme for applicants who did not meet the proof criteria.
The CPF board is supposed to detect incorrect payments made by employers for NSmen serving reservist however, the CPF board only relied on information given by the employer and did not conduct any independent checks.
This resulted in over $816,000 of underpayments of CPF contributions by employers over the last 10 years.
The CPF Board explained that they have since been able to recover this amount from employers.
In auditing the medisave claims, the AGO found that 35 out of the 99 claims it checked had over-claims amounting to about $48,100. In terms of long-term outstanding over-claims, there was over $101,000 outstanding.
The AGO also found that the CPF Board did not do anything to try and recover the outstanding amounts. CPF explained that they are working on fixing this.
Source: The Alternative View
Shanmugam made the libelous claim that The Workers' Party was taking money from the man in the street and giving it to their friends.
So how do we characterize the PAP's lapses?
Taking money from taxpayers and giving it to strangers and in some cases, cronies who own the various properties and facilities that the ministries have contracts with?
---------------------------
Background Story: AGO Finds Serious Irregularities In Public Fund Usage By MINDEF, CPF, NLB, MDA
The Ministry of Defence was identified by the Auditor-General's report released today, as one of the public bodies which had lapses in the use of public funds.
In particular, MINDEF's land and asset management was flagged as being an issue.
One particular instance was to do with the management of the land currently leased out to Sembawang Country Club (SCC).
The land was under the MINDEF's control and they had leased it to SCC in 1994 for use as a golf course.. Despite the State Land Rules indicating that the lease should not exceed three years, the land was still under the control of Sembawang Country Club last year.
On top of this SCC had leased out a wooded section of the land illegally to a contractor and failed to maintain is as required under their original lease from MINDEF.
The wooded section was subsequently trashed with waste, discarded vehicles and heavy machinery, which required public funds to clean up.
Although the land has since been cleaned up and MINDEF said they are looking into the illegal subletting matter, their lack of management of the land has amounted to MINDEF not receiving the fair market value of the land that they own and this is a serious lapse in asset and land management.
The second instance of unsatisfactory land and asset management was in the renting of 109 hectares of land from PUB in 1971 for $68 a year.
MINDEF had subsequently changed the use of the land and started to use more than the land that they had originally leased, breaching their licence agreement with PUB.
They also sublet a section of the land to contractors for $45 a year for the contractors to provide services to MINDEF.
It was not until the AGO flagged this that MINDEF explained that they have already entered into a new agreement costing $5.42 million a year for 127 hectares of land.
At the same time, the subletting of the land to the MINDEF contractor was still only charged at $45 a year despite the contractor having privatised in 2000. The contractor was also using the land for commercial reasons on top of just providing services to MINDEF.
As MINDEF was paying substantially more for the land (from $68 a year to $5.42 million a year) but still charging the same $45 a year to a private company to use part of the land, there was a significant shortfall covered by public funds.
MINDEF explained that they have since signed a new agreement with the contractors to pay $830,000 a year in rent.
These instances of improper land management mean that public funds were not utilized efficiently and there was a significant opportunity loss by the underutilization of MINDEF owned land.
Source: The Alternative View
Background Story: AGO Finds Serious Irregularities In Public Fund Usage By MINDEF, CPF, NLB, MDA
The Media Development Authority was one of the statutory boards identified by the Auditor-General's report as having lapses which have led to a waste of public funds.
The main leakage of public funds from within the MDA was related to the failure to follow up on projects that it had approved grants for.
The AGO audited 28 projects all together and found that 5 of those had not been submitted to the MDA over 12 months after the due dates. Two more were found to have been submitted up to six months late. These projects had been receiving public money from the MDA in the form of grants.
The AGO wrote that there was "no evidence" to suggest that MDA had done anything to follow up on these cases promptly
This means that there is pretty much no incentive for grant recipients to stick to their deadlines and this could open the door to more applicants simply applying for public funds and then not putting in any effort to deliver the projects.
Overall, the lack of MDA oversight of grant recipients means that about $39,500 was wasted in 14% of projects that the AGO had audited.
How much more public money was actually wasted last year due to MDA's lax oversight?
The MDA clarified that since the findings, it has tightened controls over the management of grants and it would be launching a grant management system in December 2014 to streamline the process.
Source: The Alternative View
PAP Chairman Khaw Boon Wan needs to walk the talk and commit hara kiri, given the many lapses uncovered in statutory boards under his watch in MND, in the AGO Audit 2013/14 report.
Among these, an audit of the National Parks Board’s development of Gardens by the Bay turned up documents that were allegedly backdated to give the impression that they had existed when the transactions took place in order to satisfy AGO’s queries.
This was done by an NParks officer who had created and backdated 16 letters appearing to have been issued to suppliers from NParks. In addition to that, he asked for the suppliers to issue another 11 backdated letters and falsified another five.
This was done, said the officer, to “regularise gaps… for completeness of record.”
Source: The Alternative View
During its audit of statutory boards for the year 2013/4, the AGO uncovered that the AVA, a statutory board under the Ministry of Health helmed by PAP MP Gan Kim Yong, had squandered $152,800 to obtain on two projects to gain ISO (International Organization for Standardization) accreditation for its testing methods and facilities, only to realise later that the certification was unnecessary.
Source: The Alternative View
During its 2013/14 audit of ministries and statutory boards, the AGO uncovered that for a period of two years, MOH had doled out a total sum of $64,000 to the accounts of some 99 deceased Singaporeans.
Defending itself, the Ministry attributed this to erroneous data captured by an agent engaged to administer the Interim Disability Assistance Programme for the Elderly, and claimed that the errors have since been rectified and reimbursement obtained from the agent.
This in essence is what the PAP is now accusing AHPETC of: overpaying FMCC.
In the Workers' Party case, Sylvia Lim had the integrity to owe up to the mistake and says she bears personal responsibility.
But for MOH's lapse? Where was PAP minister Gan Kim Yong?
Source: The Alternative View
Background Story: AGO Finds Serious Irregularities In Public Fund Usage By MINDEF, CPF, NLB, MDA
The Central Provident Fund Board (CPF) was flagged by the Auditor's General's report as having 3 major lapses in the administration of schemes and programs.
In particular, there was insufficient oversight of the CPF contributions made for Operationally Ready National Service men during their ICT stints resulting in underpayment. Another lapse was in the lack of verification of erroneous Medisave claims made by medical institutions resulting in the overpayment from CPF member's Medisave accounts.
The third major lapse was in the CPF board's granting of Workfare Income Supplement on behalf of the MOM without having sufficient data on applicants. This resulted in several approvals of the scheme for applicants who did not meet the proof criteria.
The CPF board is supposed to detect incorrect payments made by employers for NSmen serving reservist however, the CPF board only relied on information given by the employer and did not conduct any independent checks.
This resulted in over $816,000 of underpayments of CPF contributions by employers over the last 10 years.
The CPF Board explained that they have since been able to recover this amount from employers.
In auditing the medisave claims, the AGO found that 35 out of the 99 claims it checked had over-claims amounting to about $48,100. In terms of long-term outstanding over-claims, there was over $101,000 outstanding.
The AGO also found that the CPF Board did not do anything to try and recover the outstanding amounts. CPF explained that they are working on fixing this.
Source: The Alternative View
Shanmugam made the libelous claim that The Workers' Party was taking money from the man in the street and giving it to their friends.
So how do we characterize the PAP's lapses?
Taking money from taxpayers and giving it to strangers and in some cases, cronies who own the various properties and facilities that the ministries have contracts with?
---------------------------
Background Story: AGO Finds Serious Irregularities In Public Fund Usage By MINDEF, CPF, NLB, MDA
The Ministry of Defence was identified by the Auditor-General's report released today, as one of the public bodies which had lapses in the use of public funds.
In particular, MINDEF's land and asset management was flagged as being an issue.
One particular instance was to do with the management of the land currently leased out to Sembawang Country Club (SCC).
The land was under the MINDEF's control and they had leased it to SCC in 1994 for use as a golf course.. Despite the State Land Rules indicating that the lease should not exceed three years, the land was still under the control of Sembawang Country Club last year.
On top of this SCC had leased out a wooded section of the land illegally to a contractor and failed to maintain is as required under their original lease from MINDEF.
The wooded section was subsequently trashed with waste, discarded vehicles and heavy machinery, which required public funds to clean up.
Although the land has since been cleaned up and MINDEF said they are looking into the illegal subletting matter, their lack of management of the land has amounted to MINDEF not receiving the fair market value of the land that they own and this is a serious lapse in asset and land management.
The second instance of unsatisfactory land and asset management was in the renting of 109 hectares of land from PUB in 1971 for $68 a year.
MINDEF had subsequently changed the use of the land and started to use more than the land that they had originally leased, breaching their licence agreement with PUB.
They also sublet a section of the land to contractors for $45 a year for the contractors to provide services to MINDEF.
It was not until the AGO flagged this that MINDEF explained that they have already entered into a new agreement costing $5.42 million a year for 127 hectares of land.
At the same time, the subletting of the land to the MINDEF contractor was still only charged at $45 a year despite the contractor having privatised in 2000. The contractor was also using the land for commercial reasons on top of just providing services to MINDEF.
As MINDEF was paying substantially more for the land (from $68 a year to $5.42 million a year) but still charging the same $45 a year to a private company to use part of the land, there was a significant shortfall covered by public funds.
MINDEF explained that they have since signed a new agreement with the contractors to pay $830,000 a year in rent.
These instances of improper land management mean that public funds were not utilized efficiently and there was a significant opportunity loss by the underutilization of MINDEF owned land.
Source: The Alternative View
Background Story: AGO Finds Serious Irregularities In Public Fund Usage By MINDEF, CPF, NLB, MDA
The Media Development Authority was one of the statutory boards identified by the Auditor-General's report as having lapses which have led to a waste of public funds.
The main leakage of public funds from within the MDA was related to the failure to follow up on projects that it had approved grants for.
The AGO audited 28 projects all together and found that 5 of those had not been submitted to the MDA over 12 months after the due dates. Two more were found to have been submitted up to six months late. These projects had been receiving public money from the MDA in the form of grants.
The AGO wrote that there was "no evidence" to suggest that MDA had done anything to follow up on these cases promptly
This means that there is pretty much no incentive for grant recipients to stick to their deadlines and this could open the door to more applicants simply applying for public funds and then not putting in any effort to deliver the projects.
Overall, the lack of MDA oversight of grant recipients means that about $39,500 was wasted in 14% of projects that the AGO had audited.
How much more public money was actually wasted last year due to MDA's lax oversight?
The MDA clarified that since the findings, it has tightened controls over the management of grants and it would be launching a grant management system in December 2014 to streamline the process.
Re: Why ministars never commit suicide over Mas Selamat?
You obviously do not understand the idea behind ritual suicide of Seppuku. Only samurai can do it to end their lives and permission from daimyo is needed. Can not suka suka say I want to commit hara-kiri.
Samurai were the elite and expected to adhere to the code of bushido. Lightning on the other hand considers itself as superior, which is far from the truth, and everyone knows that it does not adhere to any moral code. The only creed that Lightning has is "Greed is Good", big fish eat small fish, if I don't rob others they will rob me, et cetera. The People, daimyo of all political participants in a democracy, will not allow such dishonourable men and women to befoul the sacred ritual of Seppuku. They shall die by the guillotine like ordinary criminals.
What that m&d Khaw is trying to do is to imitate Hideyoshi's strategy, but he forgot that Lightning are not sumurais in the first place and only the People (daimyo) can order a sumurai to perform Seppuku.
Useless Jiak Liao Bee Lightning IBs must go back to primary school. :oIo:
Dirty tactics can have unexpected results ... ...
[video=youtube;O-JRtxD-DwI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-JRtxD-DwI[/video]
You obviously do not understand the idea behind ritual suicide of Seppuku. Only samurai can do it to end their lives and permission from daimyo is needed. Can not suka suka say I want to commit hara-kiri.
Samurai were the elite and expected to adhere to the code of bushido. Lightning on the other hand considers itself as superior, which is far from the truth, and everyone knows that it does not adhere to any moral code. The only creed that Lightning has is "Greed is Good", big fish eat small fish, if I don't rob others they will rob me, et cetera. The People, daimyo of all political participants in a democracy, will not allow such dishonourable men and women to befoul the sacred ritual of Seppuku. They shall die by the guillotine like ordinary criminals.
What that m&d Khaw is trying to do is to imitate Hideyoshi's strategy, but he forgot that Lightning are not sumurais in the first place and only the People (daimyo) can order a sumurai to perform Seppuku.
Useless Jiak Liao Bee Lightning IBs must go back to primary school. :oIo:
Dirty tactics can have unexpected results ... ...
[video=youtube;O-JRtxD-DwI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-JRtxD-DwI[/video]
AIM Revisit: PAP mis-AIMed, faces blowback (Yawning Bread Got Sue & Blog Taken Down)
Let's get to the origin of this entire AHPETC saga.
When AIM was first uncovered by Alex Au, he was sued, make to issued an apology and have the article "PAP mis-AIMed, faces blowback" taken down.
In this day and age, can you really hide something once it is out on the internet.
The original article "PAP mis-AIMed, faces blowback" is archived on another site.
Here, see for yourself and connect your dots and draw your parallels.
Be wise and vote wisely in the coming GE.
Let's get to the origin of this entire AHPETC saga.
When AIM was first uncovered by Alex Au, he was sued, make to issued an apology and have the article "PAP mis-AIMed, faces blowback" taken down.
In this day and age, can you really hide something once it is out on the internet.
The original article "PAP mis-AIMed, faces blowback" is archived on another site.
Here, see for yourself and connect your dots and draw your parallels.
Be wise and vote wisely in the coming GE.
A Pertinent Question for $8 Msian Cow - GIC USD 42B loss. Who Should DIE? Ass Loon?
http://yoursdp.org/news/singapore_s_gic_suffers_41_6_billion_loss/2009-09-29-1316
http://yoursdp.org/news/singapore_s_gic_suffers_41_6_billion_loss/2009-09-29-1316
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| Added on: Tuesday 29 September 2009 Category: Singapore Total comments: 0 | ||
| Costas Paris & P.R. Venkat The Wasll Street Journal 
"The equities investments suffered the most, followed by falls in property valuations. It was one of the worst years ever," the person told Dow Jones Newswires. The person said GIC's portfolio now stands around S$265 billion. GIC is the world's fourth largest sovereign fund in terms of money managed, according to Deutsche Bank, with high-profile investments in Western financial institutions like Citigroup Inc. and UBS. Earlier in the day, GIC said in its annual report that its portfolio lost more than 20% of its value in the last fiscal year. However, it said, the recent rebound in global stock markets has helped it recover more than half of the loss. The person said GIC's property valuations are also recovering strongly. GIC said in the report that it had an annualized 5.7% return in U.S. dollar terms over the last 20 years from 7.8% a year earlier. Its nominal return over 20 years in Singapore dollar terms was 4.4% compared with 5.8% a year earlier. "Like many large institutional investors, GIC's portfolio had been impacted in the severe global downturn of 2008," said Tony Tan, GIC's deputy chairman. GIC manages the city-state's foreign exchange reserves. "By end-August 2009, global stock markets have recovered 48% from the lows of March 2009 even though they are still down 35% from their peak in October 2007," GIC's group chief investment officer Ng Kok Song said. GIC said it has confidence in the long-term prospects of Citigroup and UBS. It holds a 9% stake in UBS by way of preferred shares it bought in late 2007 for 11 billion Swiss francs ($11 billion). Last week, it said it cut its stake in Citigroup to below 5% from over 9% after it exchanged its convertible preferred stock in the bank to common stock. It made a profit of US$1.6 billion from the sale. GIC had invested US$6.88 billion in Citi in January 2008. "The UBS investment will take longer to recover. While both banks still face challenges in returning to profitability, we maintain our confidence in their long-term prospects," Ng said. Ng said that in the short-term, less funds will be available for leveraged investments as lending institutions will face more onerous capital-adequacy requirements and asset securitization markets remain impaired. "Regulatory intervention is likely to dampen risk-taking. Investment vehicles such as hedge funds and private equity funds will be subject to greater disclosure of their activities," he said. The executive also said governments and central banks may face pressure not to withdraw fiscal and monetary stimulus packages because of high unemployment levels. "These changes will present both opportunities and risks that will require GIC to adapt its investment strategy accordingly," Ng said. He said economic growth will be higher in developing countries rather than developed economies. GIC said it cut its exposure to equities by more than 10% from July 2007 to September 2008, but has now increased its exposure in global stock markets to pre-crisis levels. The fund invested 38% of its portfolio in equities last year from 44% a year earlier, while exposure to fixed income such as bonds was 24% from 26%. About 30% of GIC's portfolio is invested in real estate, private equity, venture capital and infrastructure assets, from 23% a year earlier. The fund increased its exposure to the Americas to 44% of its portfolio last year from 40%, while in Europe it cut its exposure to 29% from 35%. Asia accounted for 24% of its portfolio from 23% earlier. Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd., Singapore's second sovereign wealth fund, said its portfolio shrank to S$130 billion in the year to March from S$185 billion a year earlier due to losses in equities investments. It said that as of July, the portfolio stood at S$172 billion as a result of the recovery in global equities. Earlier in the year, people familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires that in calendar 2008, GIC had lost around S$50 billion. [url]http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125418236117447877.html[/URL] 
Stare at me for fxxx? |
Re: Because of Khaw: PAP MPs now on suicide watch
so is $8 cow gg to strangle old fart for not performing his duties?
so is $8 cow gg to strangle old fart for not performing his duties?
Re: Because of Khaw: PAP MPs now on suicide watch
By MP for Hougang SMC, Png Eng Huat
[Delivered in Parliament on 13 Feb 2015]
Madam Speaker, we all know what the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) is known for and the values they represent. In every report that came out of AGO since time immemorial, entities under its scrutiny had to go through a baptism of fire whenever the AGO came knocking. I have full respect for their work.
Over the years, the AGO has found sad instances of over payments, payments without evidence that goods and services were delivered, duplicate payments and in one instance amounting to $18.6 million, and etc in many ministries and organs of states it audited.
One agency was found to have called for a quotation instead of a tender for a project that exceeded $70,000 in the 2010/11 AGO report. Another agency was cited to have issued purchase orders to the term contractor only after the contractor has started the work.
AGO also revealed that 10 statutory boards did not present their FY 2006/07 annual reports to Parliament within the six-month time frame and three of these boards had also been late the previous two year. One of them did not even present its audited financial statements to Parliament for the previous two financial years.
Awarding contract to sole tenderer despite the offer did not meet technical requirement specified in the tender and paying more than the contract price for extension of contract were all flagged. Even the agencies under the Ministry of National Development were cited for overpayment, late payment, mistaken use of waiver of competition.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was cited for not having complied with Government procurement principles of transparency, open and fair competition, and value for money when an overseas mission was audited.
The Public Service Division was also flagged for informing a bidder that it had secured a contract worth $455,000 13 days before the Tender Board made the award decision.
Some of these lapses were small in financial values while others were serious and the list goes on. Like what the ministers said yesterday, in some country, the CEO would take a deep bow, apologise, and resign but I guess this is not in our culture.
Madam, the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) is also found by AGO to have erred in some of these areas and I am certain AHPETC will not be the last as well because good corporate governance is a work in progress.
The Workers’ Party takes the AGO findings very seriously. We have acknowledged our shortcomings in certain areas as well as defended our actions in others. On any other given day, this report may read like a typical AGO report on any entity under audit but today the spotlight is on AHPETC and we will explain the issues to the public.
Arrears of Service and Conservancy Charges
First, I would like to specifically address one of the major lapses mentioned by AGO under para 3.2© of the main report which states that AHPETC does not have “a system to monitor arrears of conservancy and services charges accurately and hence there is no assurance that arrears are properly managed”
We have explained to AGO that AHPETC does have a system to track every financial transaction in a resident’s account including HDB grants, monthly S&CC, payments, penalties, legal costs, and interests, if any, dating back to 1996 if the residents are from Hougang.
We have also explained how these S&CC payments are collected and uploaded into our financial and accounting system. Every transaction via cash, credit card, cheque, NETS, internet banking and inter-bank GIRO, is identified and posted into the respective resident’s record in the Accounts Receivable and General Ledger at the end of the day or whenever the collection agencies inform us. This has allowed AHPETC to monitor the arrears situation of an individual account ‘live’, up to date, and on demand.
AHPETC is able to account to residents as to whether they have paid their S&CC or whether they are in arrears if they were to enquire at the any of our branches across our town.
Madam, what AHPETC does not have is a program to generate aggregated S&CC data in the format requested by MND and to monitor them in that specific format. The computer system currently in use at AHPETC was an up-scaled version of the system from Hougang SMC and it was put into operation within a short span of one month. A lot of the features required to handle the operation of a GRC were not implemented then.
As we have mentioned in our media release, all reports submitted to MND up to April 2013 were prepared by staff based on data generated by the IT system and extracted through manual sorting and counting. AHPETC also acknowledges that this manual process is not ideal and efficient as the data set is huge. It is also tedious and subject to reporting and human errors.
AHPETC has made incremental improvements to the computer system over the years. Our system may be rudimentary in features compared to what was available before 2011 but it is certainly robust in keeping a reliable database. We took time to have the data and process reviewed internally and externally before we released our S&CC arrears rate of 5.66 per cent as at 30 September 2014 a few weeks ago. In short, we were not evasive when we said we would address the issue in due course. We will work towards providing timely data to MND in the coming weeks albeit not in the format the ministry required but nonetheless relevant enough to take a snapshot of the arrears situation at AHPETC.
Next, I want to highlight the challenging environment AHPETC is working in, some of which relate to the 13 points of disclaimers highlighted by the auditors of AHPETC for FY2012/13.
In Part 1 of the AGO report under one of the disclaimers on Receivables from Sundry Debtors, AGO revealed that AHPETC did not monitor and take timely follow-up action on its receivables.
In para 2.34 of the report, it was stated that most of the outstanding receivables as at 1 July 2014 were amounts due from HDB and NEA. While there were invoices under dispute, there were also instances where HDB was reviewing claims dating back to May and November 2012.
In subsection (ii) of the same para, NEA rejected four invoices from AHPETC because they were wrongly sent to one of the regional offices. NEA further explained that by the time the invoices were received by the relevant division, the period provided for payments or credit period had lapsed and NEA was unable to process the invoices for payment. The agency then requested AHPETC to re-issue the four invoices.
Madam, invoices do not carry expiry dates. The 30-day credit term listed on an invoice is to let the debtors know that they have to pay within the stipulated period or the creditors will reserve the right to impose penalties. It is common to replace a missing invoice under the same invoice number and date or to re-issue an invoice due to amendments but to request for new invoices due to expired credit terms is highly unconventional.
To void an invoice needs justification. Is it right to do that just so an agency can be seen to be prompt in making payments on paper?
Under the same report for Disclaimer 6(a) on page 23, AGO also revealed that AHPETC does have a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for non-routine works contrary to what the previous auditor had claimed. AGO was of the opinion that AHPETC should stipulate a timeline for verification works to be done by property officers after job sheets were received in the SOP, not that AHPETC does not have a SOP.
Oversight of Payments
Next, I would like to highlight what my colleague, Ms Sylvia Lim, has said yesterday on the oversight of payments.
The headline in the Lian He Wan Bao, “TC Secretary and GM pay their own company $6.6 million”, is very mischievous. Out of the $6.6 million, $6.4 million or 96 per cent is related to agreed monthly sums for services provided by the Managing Agent and Essential Maintenance Service Unit under contracts approved by the Town Council.
These are necessary recurring payments for critical services to keep our town running else rubbish will pile up three-storey high and lives will be endangered if residents are trapped in the lifts with no rescue effort carried out in the shortest possible time.
Our MA cannot make payments to themselves for the above services without the Chairman or one of the Vice-Chairmen to co-sign the cheque bearing in mind that at the same time, there are oversight committees to ensure work is done.
We monitor calls, complaints, conservancy issues, electrical issues, lift issues, customer services issues, and etc across our town and by divisions. Checks are done monthly at our Estate & Community Liaison Committee (ECLC) meetings and quarterly Town Council meetings.
So these are not payments for nothing or for unknown services or work done.
Safeguarding Public Funds
Last, I wish to touch on safeguarding public funds. It is a waste of public funds for an incoming administration to develop a new computer system that does essentially the same functions as the previous system, which was also develop with public funds.
I understand in the old days, HDB used to provide town councils with a centralized computer system. It makes perfect sense since town councils are set up to manage only HDB estates and the common areas. Who else would have the latest data on the number of flats in an estate, the types of flats, the residency status of the tenants, the amount of grant each flat should receive, when to start collecting S&CC and whether the unit is rented out whole or partial? All these information affects S&CC and grants.
And such systems are not cheap to develop. The old system at Aljunied Town Council cost over $20 million, hardware and software, split among the other PAP town councils. AHPETC has spent over half a million dollars just to replicate what the old system could do and we still have a way to go. Isn’t that a waste of resources and public funds? Setting up a centralized computer system will certainly safeguard residents’ interest and money, no doubt.
Conclusion
Madam, there are many observations made in the AGO report but at the end of it all, the buck stops at AHPETC.
I can’t remember if any minister has ordered any audit on any ministry or organ of state in recent times due to disclaimers or adverse opinions expressed by its auditors but nonetheless AHPETC had co-operated in this audit and will take lessons from the findings in the spirit of public accountability and good corporate governance.
By MP for Hougang SMC, Png Eng Huat
[Delivered in Parliament on 13 Feb 2015]
Madam Speaker, we all know what the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) is known for and the values they represent. In every report that came out of AGO since time immemorial, entities under its scrutiny had to go through a baptism of fire whenever the AGO came knocking. I have full respect for their work.
Over the years, the AGO has found sad instances of over payments, payments without evidence that goods and services were delivered, duplicate payments and in one instance amounting to $18.6 million, and etc in many ministries and organs of states it audited.
One agency was found to have called for a quotation instead of a tender for a project that exceeded $70,000 in the 2010/11 AGO report. Another agency was cited to have issued purchase orders to the term contractor only after the contractor has started the work.
AGO also revealed that 10 statutory boards did not present their FY 2006/07 annual reports to Parliament within the six-month time frame and three of these boards had also been late the previous two year. One of them did not even present its audited financial statements to Parliament for the previous two financial years.
Awarding contract to sole tenderer despite the offer did not meet technical requirement specified in the tender and paying more than the contract price for extension of contract were all flagged. Even the agencies under the Ministry of National Development were cited for overpayment, late payment, mistaken use of waiver of competition.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was cited for not having complied with Government procurement principles of transparency, open and fair competition, and value for money when an overseas mission was audited.
The Public Service Division was also flagged for informing a bidder that it had secured a contract worth $455,000 13 days before the Tender Board made the award decision.
Some of these lapses were small in financial values while others were serious and the list goes on. Like what the ministers said yesterday, in some country, the CEO would take a deep bow, apologise, and resign but I guess this is not in our culture.
Madam, the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) is also found by AGO to have erred in some of these areas and I am certain AHPETC will not be the last as well because good corporate governance is a work in progress.
The Workers’ Party takes the AGO findings very seriously. We have acknowledged our shortcomings in certain areas as well as defended our actions in others. On any other given day, this report may read like a typical AGO report on any entity under audit but today the spotlight is on AHPETC and we will explain the issues to the public.
Arrears of Service and Conservancy Charges
First, I would like to specifically address one of the major lapses mentioned by AGO under para 3.2© of the main report which states that AHPETC does not have “a system to monitor arrears of conservancy and services charges accurately and hence there is no assurance that arrears are properly managed”
We have explained to AGO that AHPETC does have a system to track every financial transaction in a resident’s account including HDB grants, monthly S&CC, payments, penalties, legal costs, and interests, if any, dating back to 1996 if the residents are from Hougang.
We have also explained how these S&CC payments are collected and uploaded into our financial and accounting system. Every transaction via cash, credit card, cheque, NETS, internet banking and inter-bank GIRO, is identified and posted into the respective resident’s record in the Accounts Receivable and General Ledger at the end of the day or whenever the collection agencies inform us. This has allowed AHPETC to monitor the arrears situation of an individual account ‘live’, up to date, and on demand.
AHPETC is able to account to residents as to whether they have paid their S&CC or whether they are in arrears if they were to enquire at the any of our branches across our town.
Madam, what AHPETC does not have is a program to generate aggregated S&CC data in the format requested by MND and to monitor them in that specific format. The computer system currently in use at AHPETC was an up-scaled version of the system from Hougang SMC and it was put into operation within a short span of one month. A lot of the features required to handle the operation of a GRC were not implemented then.
As we have mentioned in our media release, all reports submitted to MND up to April 2013 were prepared by staff based on data generated by the IT system and extracted through manual sorting and counting. AHPETC also acknowledges that this manual process is not ideal and efficient as the data set is huge. It is also tedious and subject to reporting and human errors.
AHPETC has made incremental improvements to the computer system over the years. Our system may be rudimentary in features compared to what was available before 2011 but it is certainly robust in keeping a reliable database. We took time to have the data and process reviewed internally and externally before we released our S&CC arrears rate of 5.66 per cent as at 30 September 2014 a few weeks ago. In short, we were not evasive when we said we would address the issue in due course. We will work towards providing timely data to MND in the coming weeks albeit not in the format the ministry required but nonetheless relevant enough to take a snapshot of the arrears situation at AHPETC.
Next, I want to highlight the challenging environment AHPETC is working in, some of which relate to the 13 points of disclaimers highlighted by the auditors of AHPETC for FY2012/13.
In Part 1 of the AGO report under one of the disclaimers on Receivables from Sundry Debtors, AGO revealed that AHPETC did not monitor and take timely follow-up action on its receivables.
In para 2.34 of the report, it was stated that most of the outstanding receivables as at 1 July 2014 were amounts due from HDB and NEA. While there were invoices under dispute, there were also instances where HDB was reviewing claims dating back to May and November 2012.
In subsection (ii) of the same para, NEA rejected four invoices from AHPETC because they were wrongly sent to one of the regional offices. NEA further explained that by the time the invoices were received by the relevant division, the period provided for payments or credit period had lapsed and NEA was unable to process the invoices for payment. The agency then requested AHPETC to re-issue the four invoices.
Madam, invoices do not carry expiry dates. The 30-day credit term listed on an invoice is to let the debtors know that they have to pay within the stipulated period or the creditors will reserve the right to impose penalties. It is common to replace a missing invoice under the same invoice number and date or to re-issue an invoice due to amendments but to request for new invoices due to expired credit terms is highly unconventional.
To void an invoice needs justification. Is it right to do that just so an agency can be seen to be prompt in making payments on paper?
Under the same report for Disclaimer 6(a) on page 23, AGO also revealed that AHPETC does have a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for non-routine works contrary to what the previous auditor had claimed. AGO was of the opinion that AHPETC should stipulate a timeline for verification works to be done by property officers after job sheets were received in the SOP, not that AHPETC does not have a SOP.
Oversight of Payments
Next, I would like to highlight what my colleague, Ms Sylvia Lim, has said yesterday on the oversight of payments.
The headline in the Lian He Wan Bao, “TC Secretary and GM pay their own company $6.6 million”, is very mischievous. Out of the $6.6 million, $6.4 million or 96 per cent is related to agreed monthly sums for services provided by the Managing Agent and Essential Maintenance Service Unit under contracts approved by the Town Council.
These are necessary recurring payments for critical services to keep our town running else rubbish will pile up three-storey high and lives will be endangered if residents are trapped in the lifts with no rescue effort carried out in the shortest possible time.
Our MA cannot make payments to themselves for the above services without the Chairman or one of the Vice-Chairmen to co-sign the cheque bearing in mind that at the same time, there are oversight committees to ensure work is done.
We monitor calls, complaints, conservancy issues, electrical issues, lift issues, customer services issues, and etc across our town and by divisions. Checks are done monthly at our Estate & Community Liaison Committee (ECLC) meetings and quarterly Town Council meetings.
So these are not payments for nothing or for unknown services or work done.
Safeguarding Public Funds
Last, I wish to touch on safeguarding public funds. It is a waste of public funds for an incoming administration to develop a new computer system that does essentially the same functions as the previous system, which was also develop with public funds.
I understand in the old days, HDB used to provide town councils with a centralized computer system. It makes perfect sense since town councils are set up to manage only HDB estates and the common areas. Who else would have the latest data on the number of flats in an estate, the types of flats, the residency status of the tenants, the amount of grant each flat should receive, when to start collecting S&CC and whether the unit is rented out whole or partial? All these information affects S&CC and grants.
And such systems are not cheap to develop. The old system at Aljunied Town Council cost over $20 million, hardware and software, split among the other PAP town councils. AHPETC has spent over half a million dollars just to replicate what the old system could do and we still have a way to go. Isn’t that a waste of resources and public funds? Setting up a centralized computer system will certainly safeguard residents’ interest and money, no doubt.
Conclusion
Madam, there are many observations made in the AGO report but at the end of it all, the buck stops at AHPETC.
I can’t remember if any minister has ordered any audit on any ministry or organ of state in recent times due to disclaimers or adverse opinions expressed by its auditors but nonetheless AHPETC had co-operated in this audit and will take lessons from the findings in the spirit of public accountability and good corporate governance.
MEDISHIELD LIFE: NO TRANSPARENCY, PREMIUMS INCREASED OVER 100%? Who Should Hari-Kiri?
[h=1]MEDISHIELD LIFE: NO TRANSPARENCY, PREMIUMS INCREASED OVER 100%?[/h]
Post date:
14 Feb 2015 - 1:21pm
According to the Straits Times news report “MediShield Life: How will you benefit from it?” (Jan 20) – “Go to www.medishieldlife.sg/calculator to calculate your estimated MediShield Life premiums after subsidies.
The premiums can be full paid from Medisave. Those with serious pre-existing conditions will have to pay 30 per cent higher premiums for 10 years.”
Calculate your increase in premiums
I visited the Medishield Life premiums calculator web site and entered a 60 year old Singaporean earning $2,000 gross monthly income staying in a 3-room HDB flat.
The annual premium is $515, $575, $635, $695 and $755 for the next five years.
66% increase in premiums
This is an increase of 13, 26, 40, 53 and 66 per cent over the existing premium of $455.
For a person with pre-existing conditions, the premiums are 30 per cent higher for the next 10 years.
This works out to $669.50 increasing every year to $981.50 by the fifth year – an increase of 47 to 116 per cent over the existing premium.
If you are a family of two persons – the total premium that you have to pay on the fifth year is $1,963, which is $1,053 more than the existing premium.
Can you imagine how much the premiums will increase to by the 10th year?
One family’s increased premiums
And I have not even added in the increase in premiums of the children in the family yet.
If you have parents who are 80 years old – their premiums are $566 increasing yearly to $615 by the fifth year, despite the pioneer generation subsidies.
Affordable?
No amount of Medisave contributions can ever be enough to pay for such high premiums, despite protestations and assurances that most people will have enough Medisave to pay.
Medishield Life premiums are affordable – my foot!
Be transparent please
Once again, Medishield Life is being shaft down our throats without the actuarial study being made public to disclose information like the premiums and claims projections.
By the way, the actuarial study on CPF Life has also never been made public.
Win battles lose war
TRS Contributor
[h=1]MEDISHIELD LIFE: NO TRANSPARENCY, PREMIUMS INCREASED OVER 100%?[/h]
Post date:
14 Feb 2015 - 1:21pm
According to the Straits Times news report “MediShield Life: How will you benefit from it?” (Jan 20) – “Go to www.medishieldlife.sg/calculator to calculate your estimated MediShield Life premiums after subsidies.
The premiums can be full paid from Medisave. Those with serious pre-existing conditions will have to pay 30 per cent higher premiums for 10 years.”
Calculate your increase in premiums
I visited the Medishield Life premiums calculator web site and entered a 60 year old Singaporean earning $2,000 gross monthly income staying in a 3-room HDB flat.
The annual premium is $515, $575, $635, $695 and $755 for the next five years.
66% increase in premiums
This is an increase of 13, 26, 40, 53 and 66 per cent over the existing premium of $455.
For a person with pre-existing conditions, the premiums are 30 per cent higher for the next 10 years.
This works out to $669.50 increasing every year to $981.50 by the fifth year – an increase of 47 to 116 per cent over the existing premium.
If you are a family of two persons – the total premium that you have to pay on the fifth year is $1,963, which is $1,053 more than the existing premium.
Can you imagine how much the premiums will increase to by the 10th year?
One family’s increased premiums
And I have not even added in the increase in premiums of the children in the family yet.
If you have parents who are 80 years old – their premiums are $566 increasing yearly to $615 by the fifth year, despite the pioneer generation subsidies.
Affordable?
No amount of Medisave contributions can ever be enough to pay for such high premiums, despite protestations and assurances that most people will have enough Medisave to pay.
Medishield Life premiums are affordable – my foot!
Be transparent please
Once again, Medishield Life is being shaft down our throats without the actuarial study being made public to disclose information like the premiums and claims projections.
By the way, the actuarial study on CPF Life has also never been made public.
Win battles lose war
TRS Contributor
KJ: PROBLEM WITH HUSBANDS AND WIVES IN IN SG RESERVES. Is This Small Issue? Solid!
[h=1]THE PROBLEM WITH HUSBANDS AND WIVES IN THE WP, IN THE RULING FAMILY, IN OUR RESERVES[/h]
Post date:
14 Feb 2015 - 11:10am
Written by Kenneth Jeyaretnam
Over the last few days PAP Ministers and MPs have lined up in Parliament to attack the WP for its lack of transparency and accountability in running AHPETC. As I said on my Facebook page, it’s about $6.6 million of Aljunied residents’ money versus $800+ billion of Singaporeans assets in GIC, Temasek, MAS and who knows how many other entities. That’s less than 0.001%. Where does the bigger problem lie with accountability and transparency?
This is what Khaw Boon Wan (KBW) said during Wednesday’s debate:
“The Town Council also did not “adequately manage the conflicts of interests of related parties arising from ownership interests of its key officers,” said Mr Khaw. “It was very convenient. Husband issued payment voucher, wife issued payment.”
Yes Khaw really did bring up husbands and wives in a debate on conflicts of interest. The phrase the pot calling the kettle black does not even begin to cover this.
I wonder whether the PAP appreciates the hypocrisy in attacking the WP over transparency and accountability. While not wishing to minimise the conflicts of interest of AHPETC, the consequences are fairly small compared to the glaring conflict of interest in which the PM’s wife (Ho Ching) runs one SWF (Temasek) while Lee Hsien Loong is the Chairman of the other (GIC). Lee Hsien Loong as the head of the Cabinet and the PM had ultimate authority to approve the appointment of his wife. As a result the PM and his wife control over $800 billion of assets.
We are not told how much Ho Ching earns as CEO of Temasek though the fact that her husband is in a position to influence the terms of her employment and remuneration must be a serious conflict of interest that should be covered by the same disclosure requirements as related party transactions. Certainly she probably earns considerably more per annum than the $6.4 million that WP are accused of overpaying to FMSS. We also do not know whether Lee Hsien Loong is paid anything for serving as Chairman of GIC or Tharman is paid for being the Chairman of MAS.
Shanmugam weighed in to say that the MA fees had been inflated to benefit FMSS by some $6.6 million over the past four years:
“The rhetoric from the Workers’ Party is always about helping the poor man. The reality is that the Workers’ Party took money from the man in the street to give to their friends in FMSS,”
Again the mind boggles at the lack of capacity of the PAP for self-reflection on the irony of what they are saying. How much have the returns of Temasek and GIC been inflated over the years by ripping off CPF account holders and paying them a below-market rate of interest? How much has Temasek gained by gifts from the Treasury of assets below their fair market value on which the managers were able to make enormous revaluation gains when they were listed or sold? SingTel and Singapore Airlines spring to mind. This still goes on. Changi Airport Group was transferred to Temasek at a valuation of $3 billion a few years back when its true valuation is probably closer to $20 billion now.
Hari Kumar was not slow to add his criticism:
Mr Nair said that it’s not that the AGO did not note any criminal activity, but that the AGO does not know if there was because of the state of AHPETC’s records.
We have not seen any evidence of outright corruption in Temasek and GIC but we would not know anyway because of the complete lack of transparency. Parliament does not even question the fake Budget presentation which is used to hide the Government’s obscene surpluses, running at about $30 billion a year, and fend off any pressure for higher spending on social programmes.
On Friday KBW outdid his previous performance with the words:
“Where the water is murky, it’s easier to fish. Opacity creates opportunity for crooks to make money.”
Talking about murky water is especially ironic given that Muddy Waters, an American short-seller that specialises in ferreting out companies committing fraud or hiding their true financial position, said that Olam was likely to go bust because of its heavy debt load and lack of positive cash flow. Inexplicably and inexcusably, Ho Ching chose to buy out the major shareholders of Olam by making an offer above the market price rather than wait for the company to fail and buy it out of bankruptcy with an offer to debt holders.
The PAP manage our reserves in a totally opaque way. Yet the PAP wants us to believe that they are immune from what history has shown to be true time and again. Opacity and lack of accountability breed mismanagement and at worst, corruption
These are the real conflicts of interest that pass almost unnoticed and yet are of far greater consequence to Singaporeans than a mere few million dollars in overpayments:
We should not lose focus on what this attack is really about.We must resist the PAP’s attempt to turn MPs into mere town council managers. By putting the WP on the defensive over their failings in corporate governance their real aim is to deter the Opposition from carrying out their proper function, which is to force the Government to be transparent and accountable and govern in accordance with the people’s wishes.
*The author is the Secretary-General of the Reform Party. Article first appeared on www.sonofadud.com
[h=1]THE PROBLEM WITH HUSBANDS AND WIVES IN THE WP, IN THE RULING FAMILY, IN OUR RESERVES[/h]
Post date:
14 Feb 2015 - 11:10am
Written by Kenneth Jeyaretnam
Over the last few days PAP Ministers and MPs have lined up in Parliament to attack the WP for its lack of transparency and accountability in running AHPETC. As I said on my Facebook page, it’s about $6.6 million of Aljunied residents’ money versus $800+ billion of Singaporeans assets in GIC, Temasek, MAS and who knows how many other entities. That’s less than 0.001%. Where does the bigger problem lie with accountability and transparency?
This is what Khaw Boon Wan (KBW) said during Wednesday’s debate:
“The Town Council also did not “adequately manage the conflicts of interests of related parties arising from ownership interests of its key officers,” said Mr Khaw. “It was very convenient. Husband issued payment voucher, wife issued payment.”
Yes Khaw really did bring up husbands and wives in a debate on conflicts of interest. The phrase the pot calling the kettle black does not even begin to cover this.
I wonder whether the PAP appreciates the hypocrisy in attacking the WP over transparency and accountability. While not wishing to minimise the conflicts of interest of AHPETC, the consequences are fairly small compared to the glaring conflict of interest in which the PM’s wife (Ho Ching) runs one SWF (Temasek) while Lee Hsien Loong is the Chairman of the other (GIC). Lee Hsien Loong as the head of the Cabinet and the PM had ultimate authority to approve the appointment of his wife. As a result the PM and his wife control over $800 billion of assets.
We are not told how much Ho Ching earns as CEO of Temasek though the fact that her husband is in a position to influence the terms of her employment and remuneration must be a serious conflict of interest that should be covered by the same disclosure requirements as related party transactions. Certainly she probably earns considerably more per annum than the $6.4 million that WP are accused of overpaying to FMSS. We also do not know whether Lee Hsien Loong is paid anything for serving as Chairman of GIC or Tharman is paid for being the Chairman of MAS.
Shanmugam weighed in to say that the MA fees had been inflated to benefit FMSS by some $6.6 million over the past four years:
“The rhetoric from the Workers’ Party is always about helping the poor man. The reality is that the Workers’ Party took money from the man in the street to give to their friends in FMSS,”
Again the mind boggles at the lack of capacity of the PAP for self-reflection on the irony of what they are saying. How much have the returns of Temasek and GIC been inflated over the years by ripping off CPF account holders and paying them a below-market rate of interest? How much has Temasek gained by gifts from the Treasury of assets below their fair market value on which the managers were able to make enormous revaluation gains when they were listed or sold? SingTel and Singapore Airlines spring to mind. This still goes on. Changi Airport Group was transferred to Temasek at a valuation of $3 billion a few years back when its true valuation is probably closer to $20 billion now.
Hari Kumar was not slow to add his criticism:
Mr Nair said that it’s not that the AGO did not note any criminal activity, but that the AGO does not know if there was because of the state of AHPETC’s records.
We have not seen any evidence of outright corruption in Temasek and GIC but we would not know anyway because of the complete lack of transparency. Parliament does not even question the fake Budget presentation which is used to hide the Government’s obscene surpluses, running at about $30 billion a year, and fend off any pressure for higher spending on social programmes.
On Friday KBW outdid his previous performance with the words:
“Where the water is murky, it’s easier to fish. Opacity creates opportunity for crooks to make money.”
Talking about murky water is especially ironic given that Muddy Waters, an American short-seller that specialises in ferreting out companies committing fraud or hiding their true financial position, said that Olam was likely to go bust because of its heavy debt load and lack of positive cash flow. Inexplicably and inexcusably, Ho Ching chose to buy out the major shareholders of Olam by making an offer above the market price rather than wait for the company to fail and buy it out of bankruptcy with an offer to debt holders.
The PAP manage our reserves in a totally opaque way. Yet the PAP wants us to believe that they are immune from what history has shown to be true time and again. Opacity and lack of accountability breed mismanagement and at worst, corruption
These are the real conflicts of interest that pass almost unnoticed and yet are of far greater consequence to Singaporeans than a mere few million dollars in overpayments:
- The conflict between paying you a fair rate of return on your CPF savings and exploiting you as a cheap source of funding for GIC so it can make higher returns.
- The moral hazard which encourages Temasek and GIC to take higher risks because they know that the Singapore taxpayer and CPF holder will bail them out. Also if Ho Ching can never lose her job, she is incentivized to take maximum risks as she will then get a higher bonus with no downside if she loses money.
- The conflict between the Government’s role as owner of most of the land and desire to make a profit and its role in providing low-cost social housing
- The conflict between the Government’s monopoly control of many domestic industries and ensuring a competitive environment so that you get lower prices
- The conflict between the Government’s desire to grow the economy and revenues through the import of cheap labour and driving down wages and improving the real earnings of mid- to low-income Singaporeans.
- The conflict between the role of an Opposition MP as a check on the Government and a proposer of alternative policies and the job of running the TC. MPs should not be estate managers, which requires people with specialized training. One of the reforms I want to see is elected TCs and MPs free to concentrate on the their proper role.
We should not lose focus on what this attack is really about.We must resist the PAP’s attempt to turn MPs into mere town council managers. By putting the WP on the defensive over their failings in corporate governance their real aim is to deter the Opposition from carrying out their proper function, which is to force the Government to be transparent and accountable and govern in accordance with the people’s wishes.
*The author is the Secretary-General of the Reform Party. Article first appeared on www.sonofadud.com
Re: KJ: PROBLEM WITH HUSBANDS AND WIVES IN IN SG RESERVES. Is This Small Issue? Solid
VOTE PAP OUT.... they stole our monies!
VOTE PAP OUT.... they stole our monies!
Re: MEDISHIELD LIFE: NO TRANSPARENCY, PREMIUMS INCREASED OVER 100%? Who Should Hari-K
This is what happen when PAP is in charge.
Sinkies, your ass pain or not..This is what happen when you have no balls to protest against the PAP and throw them out. Go screw yourself sinkies.
This is what happen when PAP is in charge.
Sinkies, your ass pain or not..This is what happen when you have no balls to protest against the PAP and throw them out. Go screw yourself sinkies.
Re: MEDISHIELD LIFE: NO TRANSPARENCY, PREMIUMS INCREASED OVER 100%? Who Should Hari-K
With the PxP in control of everything from dustbin collection to ashes collection....the people of Singapore..will have to commit harakiri for they will not be able to afford the high costs....
With the PxP in control of everything from dustbin collection to ashes collection....the people of Singapore..will have to commit harakiri for they will not be able to afford the high costs....
Re: MEDISHIELD LIFE: NO TRANSPARENCY, PREMIUMS INCREASED OVER 100%? Who Should Hari-K
looks like CPF is really struggling liao.............PAP so desperate for money they willing to make voters tulan...........
looks like CPF is really struggling liao.............PAP so desperate for money they willing to make voters tulan...........
Re: AIM Revisit: PAP mis-AIMed, faces blowback (Yawning Bread Got Sue & Blog Taken Do
Why are you republishing this defamatory blogpost, which the author had already admitted was nothing but crap? Typical opposition supporter. Bring out falsehood to malign PAP.
Why are you republishing this defamatory blogpost, which the author had already admitted was nothing but crap? Typical opposition supporter. Bring out falsehood to malign PAP.
Re: AIM Revisit: PAP mis-AIMed, faces blowback (Yawning Bread Got Sue & Blog Taken Do
Your blind loyalty and servitude is astounding.
Your blind loyalty and servitude is astounding.
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