The annual Town Council Management Report was released last Friday, highlighting estate maintenance as an area for improvement.
Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) was the only town council to get a red band for its management of residents' arrears in their Service and Conservancy Charges (S&CC). AHTC’s grade for corporate governance was also pending its auditor's report.
The AHTC blamed thus: due to the transition of auditors after GE 2011, they had needed more time was to complete the process. AHTC also accused that it was not part of the previous computer and financial IT systems shared by all PAP Town Councils and now provided as a service by a new third party vendor.
Granted, there is a change of auditors, Town Council staff and IT systems due to (a messy?) changeover from GE2011. But, you must agree with me that resident’s life must go on?
Truth be told:
More than 5% of Aljunied and Hougang households have S&CC arrears overdue for 3 months or more. And more than 50% of the Town Council's monthly S&CC collectible is overdue for 3 months or more.
This is a sign they have inadequate resources or competencies to run the Town Council. From the latest Town Council report published, AHTC was the only TC that posted severe arrears. Why?
This is not a trivial matter. While some town councils may choose to be more forbearing in recovering their S&CC arrears, they need to strike a good balance between being lenient (understandably to be empathetic to residents who may be facing financial hardship) and the ability to upkeep the estate sustainably. Is the Worker’s Party so caught up in scoring political points, they are neglecting their basic responsibilities?
Who suffers? Responsible households who pay their S&CC on time.
From the financial statements, the average total mean monthly S&CC fees per year is approximately $5.5 million.
Therefore monthly collection on average is approximately $463,000.
So if they have been owed 50% of the monthly collectible for the last 3 months, means they have been in arrears about $232,000. This is sizable amount which they haven't been able to collect.
2. AHTC had said that their IT system for financial management was terminated and further extension was not granted by the new third party service provider. Not acceptable. So by not fixing the problem, they can claim that they’re bullied? Can they not at least come up with an interim IT solution? Similar IT systems these days need not be developed from scratch, there are off-the-shelf products at least to keep things going. It is risky not to have reliable backup plans for running big estates like Aljunied.
Is the PAP bulling them really? No. Ever heard of “economies of scale”? You buy more, you get cheaper. Simple theory. You run your own town council, you get your own system.
3. Prior to the merger of Hougang and Aljunied Town Councils, the grading of the Aljunied Town Council was green, so the merger appears to also have a negative impact on performance. Is this indicating that the integration had not been smooth going? Do they have the necessary resources to manage the bigger and now more complex AHTC?
It is important to clarify the above questions so that the well-being of residents in these estates can be assured and the overall standing in terms of resources and competencies of WP in running big estates can be validated.
This fiasco reminds me a little of what my Chinese teacher taught me when I was a kid:
Get your career in order before you start a family.
Get your family in order before you run a country.
