[h=1]QUESTIONS ON CPF ARREARS REMAIN?[/h]
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10 Dec 2014 - 6:51pm
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One of my responsibilities is to regulate CPF.
One thing I have learnt about CPF is that wanting to do good is not enough.
When you are responsible for public monies, whether donations or fees, good intentions are not enough to prevent bad outcomes.
From time to time, some entities get into trouble because of the mismanagement of funds and poor governance. The dishonest ones would choose to stay silent, hoping that it would go unnoticed. But, eventually, questions grow too loud, and the issues burst into the open, as they rightly should.
In recent weeks, the centre of attention has not been a entity, but a scheme, specifically, the CPF.
Every year that the scheme has run CPF, the scheme has been consistently flagged “red”, both for its service and interest charge and management and its corporate governance.
In fact, since 2012, CPF has faced repeated questions – from its own members, from the CPF, and from residents of Singapore.
The situation worsened sharply in April last year. CPF reported a spike in its minimum sum - nearly 80 per cent of its residents could not meet it entirely with their CPF. This was more than many times the national average for other countries’ residents.
The spike came suddenly, without warning. After that, silence. No more CPF reports at all, for many months now.
Something is seriously wrong.
CPF is naturally concerned. It has queried itself several times.
But so far, all we have got from CPF are prevarications, non-answers, and sweeping assurances that things will be all right.
It reminds me of an erratic TV set that works initially. After a while, the image starts to flicker, and then with an almighty bang, the screen goes black. Eventually, a message appears on the screen: Please don’t adjust your controls. Your TV is working fine; the picture will return shortly.
But nothing more happens.
Recently, CPF explained that the delay in submitting the CPF returns figures was because of an audit by concerned citizens.
But CPF had stopped submitting monthly interest reports 10 years before the citizens audit began.
Anyway, why should an audit prevent CPF from immediately investigating the figures, establishing the facts, and informing the public?
Perhaps, there is a good explanation for all this.
Perhaps, the CPF interest figure was just an aberration.
But maybe, just maybe, there are bigger problems lurking behind the tangled web?
CPF recently put out a tender for a new managing investing agent. Not a single company bid, not even the current managing investing agent. Clearly, I am not the only one queasy about goings-on in CPF.
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In fact, the issue is not just the interest, but the governance and supervision of the CPF, and what the CPF are doing (or not) to resolve the matter.
Nobody knows – which is precisely the problem.
Every month, CPF collects $2 billion in CPF from residents. This is $24 billion a year.
Residents deserve to know that their money is being properly managed and spent by the CPF, and that everyone who is supposed to pay is, indeed, paying.
But unless CPF starts being transparent and accountable and answers questions, the residents may never know the truth.
When pressed recently, CPF said that she was looking into the matter and would release her findings in “due time”.
That was the same answer she gave years ago, when the interest issue was first flagged.
There is a disturbingly familiar pattern in how the CPF responds whenever questions are raised about its conduct.
It has happened again and again – who actually manage CPF and, now, managing CPF.
First, its leaders say it is not a big deal. Then, when they can no longer pretend it is not a big deal, they blame someone else – the deposits interest rates, the people who don’t take risk, even the markets. Then, when their excuses are exposed one by one, they say “we are looking into the matter”, or that things will be explained – in “due time”. And then, more silence.
Perhaps, the CPF hopes that by lying low and keeping its head down, the matter will go away. The public may forget, or even better, not notice.
But it will not, and the public will not. Instead, the CPF’s credibility and integrity are slowly but surely draining away.
After my colleague, as well as many residents and commentators in the media, raised questions, I was expecting the CPF to issue a prompt and full reply, and end its long and damaging silence.
Sadly, nothing of the sort has happened.
Instead, there is silence – one that is growing more deafening by the day.
Win battles lose war
TRS Contributor
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10 Dec 2014 - 6:51pm
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One of my responsibilities is to regulate CPF.
One thing I have learnt about CPF is that wanting to do good is not enough.
When you are responsible for public monies, whether donations or fees, good intentions are not enough to prevent bad outcomes.
From time to time, some entities get into trouble because of the mismanagement of funds and poor governance. The dishonest ones would choose to stay silent, hoping that it would go unnoticed. But, eventually, questions grow too loud, and the issues burst into the open, as they rightly should.
In recent weeks, the centre of attention has not been a entity, but a scheme, specifically, the CPF.
Every year that the scheme has run CPF, the scheme has been consistently flagged “red”, both for its service and interest charge and management and its corporate governance.
In fact, since 2012, CPF has faced repeated questions – from its own members, from the CPF, and from residents of Singapore.
The situation worsened sharply in April last year. CPF reported a spike in its minimum sum - nearly 80 per cent of its residents could not meet it entirely with their CPF. This was more than many times the national average for other countries’ residents.
The spike came suddenly, without warning. After that, silence. No more CPF reports at all, for many months now.
Something is seriously wrong.
CPF is naturally concerned. It has queried itself several times.
But so far, all we have got from CPF are prevarications, non-answers, and sweeping assurances that things will be all right.
It reminds me of an erratic TV set that works initially. After a while, the image starts to flicker, and then with an almighty bang, the screen goes black. Eventually, a message appears on the screen: Please don’t adjust your controls. Your TV is working fine; the picture will return shortly.
But nothing more happens.
Recently, CPF explained that the delay in submitting the CPF returns figures was because of an audit by concerned citizens.
But CPF had stopped submitting monthly interest reports 10 years before the citizens audit began.
Anyway, why should an audit prevent CPF from immediately investigating the figures, establishing the facts, and informing the public?
Perhaps, there is a good explanation for all this.
Perhaps, the CPF interest figure was just an aberration.
But maybe, just maybe, there are bigger problems lurking behind the tangled web?
CPF recently put out a tender for a new managing investing agent. Not a single company bid, not even the current managing investing agent. Clearly, I am not the only one queasy about goings-on in CPF.
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In fact, the issue is not just the interest, but the governance and supervision of the CPF, and what the CPF are doing (or not) to resolve the matter.
Nobody knows – which is precisely the problem.
Every month, CPF collects $2 billion in CPF from residents. This is $24 billion a year.
Residents deserve to know that their money is being properly managed and spent by the CPF, and that everyone who is supposed to pay is, indeed, paying.
But unless CPF starts being transparent and accountable and answers questions, the residents may never know the truth.
When pressed recently, CPF said that she was looking into the matter and would release her findings in “due time”.
That was the same answer she gave years ago, when the interest issue was first flagged.
There is a disturbingly familiar pattern in how the CPF responds whenever questions are raised about its conduct.
It has happened again and again – who actually manage CPF and, now, managing CPF.
First, its leaders say it is not a big deal. Then, when they can no longer pretend it is not a big deal, they blame someone else – the deposits interest rates, the people who don’t take risk, even the markets. Then, when their excuses are exposed one by one, they say “we are looking into the matter”, or that things will be explained – in “due time”. And then, more silence.
Perhaps, the CPF hopes that by lying low and keeping its head down, the matter will go away. The public may forget, or even better, not notice.
But it will not, and the public will not. Instead, the CPF’s credibility and integrity are slowly but surely draining away.
After my colleague, as well as many residents and commentators in the media, raised questions, I was expecting the CPF to issue a prompt and full reply, and end its long and damaging silence.
Sadly, nothing of the sort has happened.
Instead, there is silence – one that is growing more deafening by the day.
Win battles lose war
TRS Contributor
