NParks Bright Idea - Make Officers Cycle 40 km Per Day in Hot Weather to Save Petrol
And the so-called savings go back into the $$$ Ministers as awesome bonuses? Is there any ense of decency and humanity left in the FAP Traitors? And with cyclists being frequently mauled down by the Foreign Trash drivers on the overcrowded roads, how callous can these Traitors go?
SINGAPORE : The National Parks Board (NParks) has said it will look into fine-tuning its procurement process for the purchase of items.
Some members of the public had raised concerns over whether NParks was getting value for money when NParks purchased 26 Brompton bikes at S$2,200 each for its field officers.
NParks field officer Jacyln Lim cycles about 40 kilometres a day for tree inspections.
Previously, officers like Ms Lim were ferried around in a van as they had non-foldable bikes.
Now, their new foldable bikes have resulted in monthly transport savings of S$600 per officer as they are able to get around by themselves.
At the close of its tender in January, only one vendor had responded offering two options - the Brompton and another more expensive brand.
NParks said it chose Brompton and noted that the price of the model quoted was lower than the market rate.
While NParks said it had adhered to government procurement guidelines, it will look into improving future tender processes.
Prevailing government procurement guidelines require agencies to put up purchases up to S$70,000 through an open invitation-to-quote (ITQ) process via GeBIZ, which is open to all vendors.
NParks said this process is more transparent than just notifying a few vendors to quote.
It adhered to the procedures by putting up specifications on GeBIZ over a six-day period, including four working days, and did not indicate any brands in its quotation.
Kartini Omar-Hor, general manager (Parks) at National Parks Board, said: "We are mindful of the need to ensure value for money for all our purchases as public funds are involved.
"In this case, we could have set a longer quotation opening period to allow more vendors to come in. We could also have recalled the quotation as only vendor participated in this exercise."
But experts said this could also pose problems.
Associate Professor Ho Yew Kee from the NUS Business School, explained: "Because when there is one bid, you automatically cancel the exercise and start all over again. It would be very tough.
"Because for ordinary things, to have only one bid, that is surprising. But to have some very specialised services or products, to automatically cancel the whole bidding exercise because of one bid, I think you may incur a lot of unnecessary time and cost."
Associate Professor Ho added that he did not think there is anything fundamentally wrong with the current system.
The increased workload of NParks field officers is one of the main reasons why the foldable bikes were needed. For example, in the past couple of years, the frequency of tree inspections has risen by 30 per cent and another 50 kilometres of park connectors were also opened.
- CNA/ms
And the so-called savings go back into the $$$ Ministers as awesome bonuses? Is there any ense of decency and humanity left in the FAP Traitors? And with cyclists being frequently mauled down by the Foreign Trash drivers on the overcrowded roads, how callous can these Traitors go?
SINGAPORE : The National Parks Board (NParks) has said it will look into fine-tuning its procurement process for the purchase of items.
Some members of the public had raised concerns over whether NParks was getting value for money when NParks purchased 26 Brompton bikes at S$2,200 each for its field officers.
NParks field officer Jacyln Lim cycles about 40 kilometres a day for tree inspections.
Previously, officers like Ms Lim were ferried around in a van as they had non-foldable bikes.
Now, their new foldable bikes have resulted in monthly transport savings of S$600 per officer as they are able to get around by themselves.
At the close of its tender in January, only one vendor had responded offering two options - the Brompton and another more expensive brand.
NParks said it chose Brompton and noted that the price of the model quoted was lower than the market rate.
While NParks said it had adhered to government procurement guidelines, it will look into improving future tender processes.
Prevailing government procurement guidelines require agencies to put up purchases up to S$70,000 through an open invitation-to-quote (ITQ) process via GeBIZ, which is open to all vendors.
NParks said this process is more transparent than just notifying a few vendors to quote.
It adhered to the procedures by putting up specifications on GeBIZ over a six-day period, including four working days, and did not indicate any brands in its quotation.
Kartini Omar-Hor, general manager (Parks) at National Parks Board, said: "We are mindful of the need to ensure value for money for all our purchases as public funds are involved.
"In this case, we could have set a longer quotation opening period to allow more vendors to come in. We could also have recalled the quotation as only vendor participated in this exercise."
But experts said this could also pose problems.
Associate Professor Ho Yew Kee from the NUS Business School, explained: "Because when there is one bid, you automatically cancel the exercise and start all over again. It would be very tough.
"Because for ordinary things, to have only one bid, that is surprising. But to have some very specialised services or products, to automatically cancel the whole bidding exercise because of one bid, I think you may incur a lot of unnecessary time and cost."
Associate Professor Ho added that he did not think there is anything fundamentally wrong with the current system.
The increased workload of NParks field officers is one of the main reasons why the foldable bikes were needed. For example, in the past couple of years, the frequency of tree inspections has risen by 30 per cent and another 50 kilometres of park connectors were also opened.
- CNA/ms
