TR EMERITUS

Introduction   There has been a recent report on the audit lapses of  four   of our state agencies (MDA, MOE, MTI and Mindef)  and I wondered if we are that squeaky clean after all.   The Public Accounts Committee,  which oversees the whole auditting processing,  is also suprisingly  convened by eight Members of Parliament causing eyebrows  to raise as to how impartial  they can be.   It is like asking your own siblings  to go through your accounts when there is an audit check. It will definitely be better if such committee be staffed by auditors from professional auditting firms without any political self  interest.   There is obviously a thin line drawn between operational lapses and corruption - something  that the government will  seriously  want to take a good look at to maintain our   long-held proud clean record of a corruption-free public service.   It is clear that operational lapses are less severe than corruption as the latter is carried out maliciously for personal financial gain whereas the former is more of a systemic institutional oversight.   However, if operational lapses are not rectified over time, staff will be tempted  to exploit such operational weaknesses  for their own personal gain. We saw how the Chief Executives of National Kidney Foundation and Ren Ci Hospital were hauled to court for routinely fleecing the charitites that they ran for many years. I believed that this is merely the tip of the iceberg here.   MDA - A Repeat Offender   One of the four alleged ministries – MDA – chided for audit lapses last week was also suprisingly chastised  just a year ago by the Attorney-General in a Straits Times’ report on 15 Jul 2009 for the same operational malpractices.    Among its many lapses then included the failure to collect $9.89 million  in revenue from  investment in 46 firms. Contractual obligations were also not followed through. For example, it did not  bring to task  the underperformance of a sloppy contractor at the Institute of Technical Department (ITE).    It looked as if MDA has not learned their mistake here as for  the second straight year, they have committed the same mistake and probably were  let off too leniently each time with just a warning.   One also wonders what penalty will the government impose on the organisation if their mistake goes unheeded for another few more years.  Will heads roll or do  they continue to operate as if nothing has happened?   Our government has taken pains to pay our government staff decently and sometimes to the point of  over-paying them so that they will not resort to using illicit means to earn an extra income at their work places. This is to be commendable as a corruption-rife civil service will not do Singapore any good.   Civil Service Bad Experiences   I remembered working for a Deputy Director (DD) in a civil service many years ago who asked his staff to do personal things for him.  The government scholar  would ask his technical department staff to repair his home’s  leaked pipe or   his personal driver to pick up his daughter from school.   Naturally, for the sake of their rice bowl, the staff unwillingly obliged. When I heard of such allegations, I was uncomfortable but couldn’t do anything about it.   There wasn’t any whistle blowing practices in place then and in order to pin point your big boss up for malpractices, you need to gather those who had the evidences to  stand  on your side.  I am sure that this would be a tall order as livelihood is at stake here.   Fortunately, I heard CPIB later started an investigation into a staff’s allegation that the DD has abused his position at work. His assets were heard to be frozen for about six months during that period pending an investigation. I was relieved that at least someone had the guts to blow the whistle on him. Shamefully, I didn’t have enough guts to do so.   As the DD was both arrogant and loud-mouthed, I was not surprised that someone decided to report  on him as he was behaving like a tyrant at the work place. Staff were put down and humiliated during meetings and the turn-over rate was high. He was clearly an unpopular man.   I also learned that though he could continue in his current position, his promotion to the next grade would not be possible. I thought that he was let off pretty leniently.   Hai Sing Catholic Principal   We also knew of the recent infamous Hai Sing Catholic principal who hired his friend to a consultant position in the school. The principal was subsequently replaced and  transferred out to the MOE headquarters.    Likewise, someone in the school has reported on him and according to the newspaper reports, he was arrogant and ran the school  like a tyrant. Maybe, MOE has allowed principals to have too much autonomy in the schools creating a virtual monster out of many – to the horror of  school teachers.   The civil service actually has an enviable system to stop possible corruption by requiring you to put up a proposal of three quotations before a certain amount can be dispensed for a pruchase.   I remembered as a young purchasing officer working in the civil service, I have to call for a few quotations from private companies and wrote tedious detailed reports why I have chosen to purchase a particular product from that company.  This procedure applied to any departmental purchase for an  amount exceeding  $500.  My section head, departmental head and asst deputy director have to authorise before I could proceed with the purchase.   I thought that the procedure was both troublesome and inefficient until I realised that it was a very good check system against any possible financial irregularities.   Coming back to the Hai Sing Catholic principal’s case.   I have heard from friends working in schools that it is common for principals to hire friends for short-termed positions such as a consultant or motivational speaker.   It made sense as primarily, the principal knows the credentials of their friends and very often he does not have the luxury of time to  allow him  to write tedious reports on top of calling in quotations from the public. The whole process may have taken up to a month before the position can be filled and by then the event may be over.   So,  is the principal’s malpractice constituted as an  operational lapse or an oversight here?   For all we know, something may have change hand when he appointed his friend to that school’s position but I am speculating here. Again, this reiterated the fear that any operational lapse can be exploited for a personal gain.   Self Help Groups and CDCs   I have also  worked in a self help group  for a few months before  and  felt disturbed by the whole experience.   Manpower issues were poorly handled and many earned salaries that blew my mind off.  A university graduate could earn close to $4500 a month excluding bonuses after a few years of service and the superior in my section behaved  like a friend to his staff.   The IT guy who worked there also brought in a fish tank to his offce and he could be seen talking more to other office staff than working.  The whole office environment looks like a family business but only this time round, they are using public funds.   We were also warned not to publicise our pay for fear that the public will know about it and writes to the press  to complaint which to me is a mockery to  the whole transparency process.   I believed that civil servants or even self help group staff need to be adequately compensated for the kind of work that they do but if they need to cover up their salary packages then something is wrong here.  Are they guilty of over-compensating staff perhaps?   The same salary package’s  fear happened when I was working  in the CDC two years ago  - infamous for their hefty yearly bonuses because of the PB (performance bonus) factor. Some solid performers even  received PB of almost six months without  factoring in the official year-end bonuses yet!   Many staff took back 5-figure bonuses during the year end.   Back to the self help group that I worked in.   Some of the self help group’s   operating expenses also smelled of over indulgence. For example, we ran a bus publicity service throughout the island once a week and staff would attend to the public’s enquiries on job matching at selected HDB spots.    Unfortunately, the bus routes selected were mostly in some remote HDB carparks that nobody knows and very often, we receive zero enquiries for job assistance wasting half a day of our time.   I am ok with the scheme if it is beneficial but the public’s response was so lukewarm that we wasted precious resouces running such a white- elephant project weekly.  I also heard that the bus scheme  didn’t came cheaply. The community service project set the self help group back by $50,000 for an entire year of operation not counting in the man- hours involved.   I remembered many of us volunteered for such weekly bus community outing as it was seen more like a half day off to tour Singapore housing estate than anything else. Fortunately, the bus project was called off after one year of public fund wastage. The self help group also suffered from one surprising dilemma – it has too much money and didn’t really know how to spend it.   Meetings were specially held to encourage departments to use up all their projected funds as if not they will have to carry forward their excess fund  to the next financial year thus creating a huge budget surplus. I was amazed at how perturbed management staff were at trying to use up all their excess funds available.    It also goes to show how wealthy  self help groups are  and wonder if  they can do more to give to the poor than our five CDCs have.   Conclusion   The government  needs  to realise that the whole civil service  is  funded by tax payer’s money and they are accountable to the public. Any operational lapses need to be rectified early and if there is a serial defaultor like the MDA, heads must roll so that the public is assured of a serious commitment to provide tip-top  public  service. The same goes for our four self help groups.   Written By: Gilbert Goh  Read More →

OPINION When Law Minister Shanmugam spoke about the need for Singapore to have a "strong and stable" government which makes "quick and effective" decisions a few months ago in Parliament, he was greeted with a dose of cynicism and derision by some netizens who saw it as another lame attempt to justify the PAP's dominant position in Singapore politics. The latest developments in neighboring Malaysia have provided us ample lessons on why it is important for Singapore to have a strong government and a weak opposition in order not to hamper the decision-making process for the greater good of the nation. For over 50 years, Malaysia is governed by the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition (formerly known as the Alliance) which enjoyed two-thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat (Malaysia's Parliament) till the 2008 elections when the opposition won an unprecedented 82 out of 222 seats in Parliament and lost control of 5 states including the two richest states of Penang and Selangor. (the number is now reduced to 72 after a spate of defections and resignations of MPs from Parti Keadilan Rakyat) Malaysia used to be an attractive investment destination for MNCs, but the political uncertainty has made a dent on foreign investment with net portfolio and direct investment outflows reaching US$61 billion in 2008 and 2009. Little money has also flowed into equities, according to central bank statistics. Investments into the opposition-controlled states have slowed down too as investors are unsure if the state governments will survive till the next election after the Perak fiasco which saw Barisan wrestling control of the state back from the Pakatan Rakyat following the "defection" of three lawmakers. The recent spate of resignations of PKR MPs from the states of Kedah and Selangor have spooked potential investors who are left wondering if business deals signed with the present state governments will be honored in the event that there is a change in government. At the Federal level, the resurgent opposition has kept the Malaysian government on its toes, preventing it from implementing much needed reforms to liberalize the economy. Malaysia spent 15.3 per cent of total federal government operating spending on subsidies in its 2009 budget when its deficit surged to a 20-year high of 7 per cent of GDP. A Minister warned recently that unless Malaysia cut back on the subsidies, it will become bankrupt in 2019. Prime Minister Najib Razak, an economist by training, has proposed the New Economic Model (NEM) to replace a four-decades old Malay affirmative policy known as the New Economic Policy (NEP) which gave a wide array of economic benefits to the "bumiputras" or ethnic Malays sometimes at the expense of other races. Investors have long complained that abuse of the policy spawned a patronage-ridden economy, promoted corrupted practices, retarded Malaysia's competition and causing foreign investors to favour Indonesia and Thailand. Najib's moves to roll back the NEP have met with stiff opposition from Malay rights group Perkasa which rejected the NEM outright and called on the NEP to be preserved. Though cutting back on subsidies will have an immediate impact on low-income Malaysians, it will benefit the country in the long run leading to increased competitiveness and foreign direct investment. Unfortunately, many analysts believe that the proposed reforms will be delayed, watered down or even abandoned altogether to avoid losing votes. With the ethnic Chinese firmly behind the opposition Pakatan Rakyat, Barisan needs the votes of the Malays to shore up its flagging support base. Rolling back the NEP at such a crucial juncture will definitely cause Barisan to lose the support of the Malays which may cause it to be voted out of office in the next general election due to be called by 2013. Najib's hands are tied out of political considerations to the detriment of the entire nation. Malaysia will not be in such a conundrum if it had a strong and stable government like Singapore as well as a weak and non-existent opposition to create trouble for the ruling party. Unpopular policies which are beneficial to the nation can be implemented swiftly on the ground without the lingering fear of losing votes in the next election. Singapore's economy took off between the years 1968 - 1980 when the PAP controlled all the seats in Parliament without a single opposition member. Critical and sometimes painful decisions are made and policies implemented quickly and efficiently with no opposition from other parties. For example, the Chinese language and vernacular schools were closed down and replaced by national schools during this period of time. In Malaysia, this archaic system of education divided by language has remained because no Malaysian Prime Minister has the courage or determination to deal with the expected outcry from Malay rights groups and Chinese clans. As such, Malaysia's standard of education continues to lag behind Singapore to this very day. Singapore does not have any natural resources like Malaysia to fall back on. That is why we need a strong and stable government to make quick and effective decisions for the good of the nation. The present system has served us well for the last fifty years and has delivered unprecedented economic success and prosperity to our nation. Let us not go down the slippery slope of multi-party partisan politics which have ruined our neighbors like Thailand, Philipines and Malaysia.   Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans. Please use our online web form to contact us.  Read More →

Singapore's national paddler Li Jiawei has signed up to play for the Beijing team in the China Table Tennis Super League after the Moscow World Championships, her father Li Wanxiang told Chinese reporters n a Beijing Daily (北京日报) report in April. The news was strangely not reported by the Singapore media. According to the report in Chinese: "'Jiawei has signed on with the Beijing team, and will start preparing for the Super League after the Moscow World Championships. 28-year-old Li Jiawei is born in Beijing, and started learning table tennis from her father at 6 years old. Li Jiawei was selected for the Beijing team and was teammates with other outstanding table tennis players. At age 13, Li Jiawei went to Singapore to develop her career, and obtained citizenship there." Jiawei is one of the many mainland Chinese which Singapore has "talent-spotted" and "recruited" over the years to join its table-tennis team. They are often "fast-tracked" to become Singapore citizens to be able to represent Singapore in international competitions. The players in the Singapore team which won the World Championship recently are all born in China, prompting some to sneer at the finals as a match between "China Team A and B." When Jiawei married a businessman from Beijing last year, she promised that she would return to play for Singapore after the delivery of her child. Jiawei is not the first China-born player who has returned to China. Former national paddler Zhang Xueling has since resigned from the Singapore team to return to Shanghai to join her husband, Zheng Qi the Ex-Assistant Table Tennis Coach for the Singapore's Men's Team. It seems that it is easy to bring the foreign talents over to Singapore, but keeping their hearts here is a different story, a lesson which the PAP will never learn as it continues to splurge taxpayers' monies on grooming more Zhang Xueling and Li Jiawei instead of true-blue Singaporeans.   Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans. Please use our online web form to contact us.  Read More →