But first a quote:
Amongst the things you can do, I suggest you study the annual accounts of the town council to ensure that the funds are properly used. Check whether the arrears for S & C charges are piling up, and eating into their reserves. Make sure that enough money is put aside for cyclical maintenance. In your walkabouts, check on the estate maintenance. If Mr Low has done a good job, give him credit for it. If there are deficiencies, point them out to the residents. In short, play the role of an effective opposition in Hougang.
– “Strengthening Our Unique Political System”, Speech by Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, National Day Dinner, Hougang Community Club, 26 July 2008
Town council revelation – lets stop throwing good money after bad – Simply Gab
But wait a minute, while we know how much went into these bad investments, we do not know the total amount invested in what he described as deposits, securities and other financial products.
We do know that the proportion of investible funds are limited to 35%. Since 8 million is 6.7% of this portion, we know that Holland-Bukit Panjang TC alone has about 340 million in sinking funds. Therefore according to the rules, approx 119 million is available to Holland-Bukit Panjang TC for investments.
$12m in troubled products – Hong Guan
Why did it take a question from Ms Olsen for this issue to surface? (it’s been 4weeks (thereabouts) since the onset of the Lehman debacle)
Singapore Town Council ignorant about high risk bond investment? – Big Talk Singapore
They said that it is only a small sum that our town council can afford and should not affect town council services. Maybe they considered it as “Peanut” compared to the total town council fund, about 0.6% (See attachment #2). If this is how they think, then it will be a very dangerous thinking. If we lose 0.6% of the fund today, how about 0.61% tomorrow ? Losing the people money like this can never be justified in the eye of normal citizens.
Singapore town councils and the people’s money – Descriptive Thoughts
I am quite surprise that the resident and taxpayers seems unaware of such investments in the first place – was it because of our own ignorance or should the authorities had been more clearer and more transparent with their or rather our finances?
Town council lost $12M ??? …Who cares! – Lucky Tan
I’m just a bit surprised that $12M = 0.6% of the total investible reserves. Only 40% of their reserve can be invested. On the back of envelop calculation tells us they accumulated $5B in reserves for estate maintenance. This is crazy! To build a reserve of this size, they have unnecessarily burdened Singaporeans with conservancy charges which could have been lowered.
Why are town councils “gambling” with our money? – IZ Reloaded
To the folks who are running the town councils in Singapore: Your job is to control, manage, maintain and improve the common property of the housing estates, NOT to “gamble” Singaporeans’ money in stocks, bonds and other financial instruments! If you have no idea what to do with that spare cash, please give them back to Singaporeans who really need them.
Lose money not our fault – Blog DK
Quite shocking to know that our Town Councils has lost billions of taxpayer money. See, if you don’t ask you won’t know. Now that you know, you also can’t do anything. And to cover up the losses, situations will be made in such a way that you can’t refuse no for an answer.
4 million dollars – Live To Learn To Live
I am pretty sure more than one person read the bold print which states that the principal amount is not guaranteed.
Gambling in the town councils? – Singapore Kopi Tok
But only in the past few days was the severity of the damage revealed by our nation-building press. If there were no pleas to whistle-blow, would the Town Councils, behaving like GLCs, have come forward and be honest?
Sembawang Town Council clear for now – What Will Last
Sembawang Town Council replied to my email after I sent them a gentle reminder a week after this first email was sent out.
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Once We Were Eagles
Once there was a place where eagles soared and flew free. They went wherever they wanted to. They ate whatever they wanted to. They flew and soared as high as they wanted to.
One day, a man dressed in white (MIW) came along and spoke to the eagles:
He said:
“Oh eagles, why do you fly here and there? There is another world out there and if we work together we can conquer it and call it our home. Imagine the vast space you could fly in and the huge varieties of food you can eat to your hearts content. Come down and listen to me. I will show you the way to paradise on earth“.
And so the eagles, being naïve more than anything else, believed the MIW because they had never heard any man speak so sweetly before.
That day, the eagles flew down from the sky to listen to the MIW.
Soon, they were listening to his stories. To his promises of a paradise beyond imagination. A paradise where one could only dream of.
While the MIW continued talking with his sweet and tender words, the gathering of eagles did not realised that the henchmen of the MIW were closing the surrounding areas where they stood to listen.
Day after day, the MIW told his stories and as the days went by, he managed to convince the eagles that they are in actual fact, peacocks. That they were they most beautiful creatures alive on the face of the earth.
The eagles eventually came to believe that they were peacocks and the more they believed, the more proud they became.
Other birds that flew by and noticed how proud these ‘peacocks’ were, tried to tell them that they are eagles but the ‘peacocks’ would have none of such nonsense. They believed they are peacocks and no one could convince them otherwise.
Many years passed and the older generation of eagles had since passed on. The new generation continue to believe they are the prettiest peacocks on the face of the earth. The theological indoctrination of the MIW became the law that governs every aspects of their lives.
And so the story goes. The ending to the story has yet to be written. Will it be a happy ending? Will it be a sad and tragic ending?
Does it matter if we continue speculating? Do you get it?
The ending is to be written by you and me. We have forgotten that we could fly. We have the freedom to fly, to soar, to land, to seek our own destiny. Why have we become so afraid to fly?
Because we still think we are peacocks.
You believe?
To #52
Not sure if we are still peacocks but for sure we are cocks for taking all these crap shoved to us…
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
I think we need to submit a ban to TC from taking Singapore Money to gamble like that before the IR start their casino business in SIngapore.
Who sold the structured investment products to the TCs and were there personal interests involved?