10 thoughts on the 'integrity' saga and selective use of evidence by VB

[Confuseous]

If you, like Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, haven’t moved on from this whole hawker centre cleaning saga, here are ten thoughts that may interest you. For background reading, please refer to the “dossier” and this email chain between AHPETC and NEA. All observations below are on the assumption that everything in the dossier is true.

1. The NEA officer, Ms Chin Peiyun, clearly misled AHPETC in the email on 7 Feb 2013 by writing “pl note that the Hawkers Association will make the necessary arrangements with their contractors on the scaffold erection/ dismantling during the spring cleaning period from 4-8 March 2013 for the above food centre (538)”. In all likelihood this could be unintentional, but NEA should acknowledge this miscommunication instead of insisting that it was referring to “the scaffolding and canvas covers for the individual stalls”. Nowhere was “canvas covers” mentioned in the email.

2. I am guessing that, after Ms Chin’s email, someone from AHPETC informed ATL Maintenance that the Hawkers Association (HA) will be responsible for the erection of the scaffolding, which led to ATL delivering the quotation to the HA without its asking.

3. Vivian B urged for clean politics and for mistakes to be owned up, which is what everyone wants. But by refusing to admit (1), it makes his grand speech sound a bit rich. The fact that Ms Chin’s email was mentioned but not included in the dossier in full suggests selective choice of “evidence”.

4. A representative from HA claimed that ATL workers only came down on only one day (7 Mar) to clean, even though the hawker centre was closed for 5 days. This was after HA had rejected the quotation from ATL which was for 4 working days. My guess is that Mr Tai Vie Shun, AHPETC’s property manager, could be thinking: “NEA has already said the hawkers are responsible for the scaffolding. If they don’t want to pay, fine, we will just do the normal one day cleaning without scaffolding”.

- http://www.voiddecker.com/2013/07/10-thoughts-on-hawker-centre-cleaning-saga/

 

[winnipegjets]

If you, like Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, haven’t moved on from this whole hawker centre cleaning saga, here are ten thoughts that may interest you. For background reading, please refer to the “dossier” and this email chain between AHPETC and NEA. All observations below are on the assumption that everything in the dossier is true.

1. The NEA officer, Ms Chin Peiyun, clearly misled AHPETC in the email on 7 Feb 2013 by writing “pl note that the Hawkers Association will make the necessary arrangements with their contractors on the scaffold erection/ dismantling during the spring cleaning period from 4-8 March 2013 for the above food centre (538)”. In all likelihood this could be unintentional, but NEA should acknowledge this miscommunication instead of insisting that it was referring to “the scaffolding and canvas covers for the individual stalls”. Nowhere was “canvas covers” mentioned in the email.

Why would the contractor responsible for covering the stalls want to use scaffolding when ladders are all they need? Use scaffolding would cost them more. And since when will a contractor let the customer dictate the tools to be used for the work? The contractor just need to cover up and then remove the covers. That's it. It is apparent that NEA screwed up ...1. They told the hawkers that there would be an annual cleaning when they did NOT check with the WP TC; 2. NEA - Ms Chin - told the WP TC that the hawkers will provide the scaffolding.

2. I am guessing that, after Ms Chin’s email, someone from AHPETC informed ATL Maintenance that the Hawkers Association (HA) will be responsible for the erection of the scaffolding, which led to ATL delivering the quotation to the HA without its asking.

I think the PAP lackey did request for the quotation. He has not publicly denied it previously. Now, Ms Vivian has denied that on his behalf. Doesn't the PAP lackey have a mouth? Isn't he concerned about his integrity?

3. Vivian B urged for clean politics and for mistakes to be owned up, which is what everyone wants. But by refusing to admit (1), it makes his grand speech sound a bit rich. The fact that Ms Chin’s email was mentioned but not included in the dossier in full suggests selective choice of “evidence”.

His dossier has shown that the NEA screwed up and the PAP is trying to pin the blame on the PAP.

4. A representative from HA claimed that ATL workers only came down on only one day (7 Mar) to clean, even though the hawker centre was closed for 5 days. This was after HA had rejected the quotation from ATL which was for 4 working days. My guess is that Mr Tai Vie Shun, AHPETC’s property manager, could be thinking: “NEA has already said the hawkers are responsible for the scaffolding. If they don’t want to pay, fine, we will just do the normal one day cleaning without scaffolding”.

It was supposed to be Spring cleaning. Since NEA informed WP TC that scaffolding would be set up, the WP TC was prepared to do an annual cleaning. When they saw that no scaffolding was set up, they just continued with Spring cleaning.