The following letter was sent through email to the Jurong GRC Town Council on 20 Novermber 2008 by TOC writer Lim Chih Yang. The town council has yet to reply.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I refer to the article on Today (dated: 17 November 2008). As I understand that Town Council had used sinking funds in the area of investment and they are within constitutional rights to do it within 35%.
As a resident in Bukit Batok which is within the Jurong GRC, may I request if Jurong Town Council could direct to me where could I find the link on the Jurong Town Council website to download the financial report? May I also ask if the Town Council is able to provide a breakdown on the investment performance made thus far?
Minister of State for Nattional Development Grace Fu had mentioned in parliament that residents should pose queries to their respective Town Council.
If there is any further clarification or queries, please feel free to drop me a call at ********.
Thank you.
Regards
Chih-Yang
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They need time to clean up the cupboard before coming back to you to show everything is inorder and clean.
Chih-Yang
Way to go. Remember to let us know whether they have replied or not. Why don’t you copy this to Mah BT?
I am sure he is keen to know that so far Town Councils have ignored his call for residents to check on them.
I think the whole govt now is in a limbo when PM Lee is away for the APEC conference.
I have forward this to the Straits Times forum but so far no news yet whether they will publish or not:
I refer to the article “Town councils to explain” (Sunday Times, 23 Nov).
As the public is still coming to terms with the news that town councils have invested our hard-earned service and conservancy fees into the toxic minibond instruments, I was disappointed with Mr Mah Bow Tan’s statement that the residents should go to their respective town councils to ask for a fuller disclosure and explanation if they want to know more.
More importantly. it also raised grave doubts on the reporting channel of our town councils who are seen as aligned closely with the government. Who do they report to actually and if there is a serious breach of regulation in future, who will get the rap? Surely, the town council will not want each resident to go to their office and ask for a detailed disclosure of it’s investment whenever it has made a bad call. Moreover, it has failed to be transparent enough in it’s annual reporting as most town councils failed to provide full disclosure of it’s investments. This has to change.
As each town council has a team of advising MPs and minister if it is a GRC ward, surely the team ought to be more accountable here unless it’s existence is merely symbolic. So far, they are very silent. The role and function of our elected MPs in town councils ought to be properly explained to the residents who are so far kept in the dark from any decision making process of our town councils. The way Mr Mah has explained away the accountability issue of town councils raised the probability that all along our town councils are very independent units. They also answer to no one and we just happened to know recently that they have only to answer to the residents who pay their fees every month.
If that is the case, town councils should operate like the residents’ committee of most private estates here. Funds are collected monthly and the committee appointed by popular votes within the estate employed a estate manager to run the maintenance of our respective estate. The residents can then have a choice on how our funds are operated and utilised.
As Singapore is in the midst of a full blown recession and graves times certainly will test the mantle of our governance, our elected leaders ought to show more leadership on how it handled hiccups which inevitably will creep up now and then. I am sure that the population is matured enough to accept some wrong steps along the way. However, failure to accept responsibility and pushing accountability away are something that the most gracious Singaporean will not be able to stomach.
They may need time to clean up their financial report too.
Patience is a virtue.
hongjun
In the article “Town councils to explain” in The Sunday Times on Nov 23, it was mentioned that :
“The Government stipulates that 20 to 25 per cent of money collected from monthly service and conservancy charges must go to a sinking fund.”
The percentages cited are not what was stated in many of the Town Councils annual reports.
According to the latest Annual Report 07/08 of Pasir Ris-Punggol TC,
Quote :
For the current financial period, the minimum amounts to be paid into Sinking Funds are as follows:
Percentage of Conservancy and
Property Type Service Fees and Grant-in-aid
(i) 1-room to 3-room 30% -> of conservancy and service
(ii) 4-room 35% -> fees and grant-in-aid
(iii) 5-room 35% ->
(iv) Executive 35% -> of conservancy
(v) Shop with living accommodation 35% -> and service fees
(vi) Other Commercial property 35% ->
Unquote.
The above can be found on page 33 of the 07/08 report at this link :
http://www.prpg-tc.org.sg/cms/uploads/Annual%20report%200708.pdf
Where did the journalists get the cited percentages from ?
Since the TCs suffered losses in Lehman Brothers related investments, the issue of sinking fund and investing such funds have generated lots of public interest. Many questions were raised on why TCs have accumulated such huge amount of sinking fund that required professional fund managers to manage.
Since the article is published as the key story of the day on the front page of The Sunday Times, one would expect the journalists to take extra care in verifying the accuracy of such figures given the level of interest it will attract. It is quite incredulous that such mistakes were made and this raised several questions in my mind.
Is this an honest mistake on their part as a result of their lack of thoroughness in their research ? Or is it just a typo error ? For the cynical, is it a deliberate attempt of misinformation to mislead the HDB residents by understating the
amount of their monthly S&C fees going to the sinking fund ?
If an ordinary citizen can retrieve such information quickly from the TCs website, how can journalists from a major newspaper who have a duty to report factually and accurately not able to get the numbers right ? A quick browse through any of the annual reports would have gotten them the correct information.
Yamasam,
“The Government stipulates that 20 to 25 per cent of money collected from monthly service and conservancy charges must go to a sinking fund.” The remaining 75 to 80 per cent can also go to the sinking fund. The more the merrier. The bigger the pool of investible funds. Get it?
Singapore: Another case of privatise the profits but socialise the debts?
Our government only demands accountability and transparency from others, not itself. What a group of Jun zi (scholarly gentlemen). Oh right, this term is no longer used by them. My bad.
Lee Hsien Loong: “In a big economy, you can boost consumption. The government gives money, people spend it and it’s spent within the economy. Most of it stays in, a little bit of it leaks out. You get a multiplier and the economic activity goes up.
“In Singapore, if people spend money, most of the money goes overseas because we are so open and most of the demand is abroad. Most of the money we spend is spent on things which come from abroad, so it’s not possible for us to pump- prime the economy in the same way that other governments do.
So what did Goh Chok Tong tell the people to do? Spend!
Left eye give right eye a black eye. Right eye poke left eye. Sigh.
I also Bukit Batok leh. Please keep us posted. Thanks
“Left eye give right eye a black eye. Right eye poke left eye. Sigh.”
Their tactic as usual: “If it can’t convince you, confuse you then.”
You see, people need to have money to spend, and people complain that economic bad and inflation high therefore gov need to help with some money to spend, but once Ah Loong knows that his money-making corporation need to give out money for free to the spender, he in his usual pragmatic stun reverse the logic and prevent money for giving to the spender. So it is not hard to see where he coming from as Ah Loong in the world give money for free and without interest ?
We also need to ensure that the TOCs’ Financial Statements are duly verified and audited by external auditors
Can you send one to AMK GRC..
I dare not send to Mr Lee..
11) isa on November 25th, 2008 11.25 pm
Can you send one to AMK GRC..
I dare not send to Mr Lee
Hey isa, pass one via vivien balasimilang, he always visit Mr Lee what? hehe . .
Hi Chih-Yang
I fully understand your anxiety to want to know the Town Council accounts as you are a rightful stakeholder of the money. However I think you are wasting your time to ask for it. They will reply to you that the law of secrecy is on their side and they have no obligation to furnish any account to you or any other citizen.
The situation is different in my private condo, because the MCST law says clearly that the manager of my condo must furnish his management accounts as and whenever requested by any unit owner who has to contribute to the account.
While that guy is asking to spend and spend to help econ,
we are hearing news about companies cutting on spending , staff , and X’mas deocor and lightings.
13) anonymous on November 26th, 2008 12.10 am
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while it is true that getting a response is not easy,
I think we should stand behind Lim Chih Yang for voicing up for the rest.
There is an Effect already as his attempts are made known to the netizens.
I hope for multiplier effect.
Town councils’ sinking funds not mismanaged, says Teo Ho Pin
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/392409/1/.html
If you review the TC annual reports, the reports will have a line stating an amount of money (min required by law) transferred from S&C fees to the sinking funds. Thus, the sinking funds contain funds from S&C fees.
Part of government grants is also transferred to the sinking funds. So, certain amount of government money (public) is also used to invest.
I suggest that Mr Teo reads his Annual Reports again.
For example, see page 13.
http://www.tptc.org.sg/pdf/Annual%20Report08.pdf
5) Yamasam on November 25th, 2008 4.40 pm
In the article “Town councils to explain” in The Sunday Times on Nov 23, it was mentioned that :
“The Government stipulates that 20 to 25 per cent of money collected from monthly service and conservancy charges must go to a sinking fund.”
That 20 to 25 per cent is the minimum set by gov. The town council placed above the minimum into sinking fund.
=================
(5) The Minister may, from time to time, prescribe the minimum amount of —
(a) the conservancy and service charges which are paid, or are due and payable, or both, to a Town Council under section 39; and
(b) any grants-in-aid made to a Town Council under section 42,
to be paid or credited into the sinking funds established for residential property and for commercial property.
17) sarek_home
I disagree with your statement
“That 20 to 25 per cent is the minimum set by gov. The town council placed above the minimum into sinking fund.”
Let me quote from Page 33 of the Pasir Ris-Punggol Annual Report 07/08 :
Quote.
Under the Town Councils Act, the Minister for National Development may, from time to time, prescribed the minimum amounts of conservancy and service fees and grants-in-aid to be paid into the Sinking Funds. During the financial year, the Town Council decided to apportion 5% of its General and Administrative Expenses from Routine Funds to Sinking Funds.
For the current financial period, the minimum amounts to be paid into Sinking Funds are as follows:
………………………………………………………….Percentage of Conservancy and
Property Type……………………………………Service Fees and Grant-in-aid
(i) 1-room to 3-room…………………………30% -> of conservancy and service
(ii) 4-room………………………………………..35% -> fees and grant-in-aid
(iii) 5-room……………………………………….35% ->
(iv) Executive……………………………………35% -> of conservancy
(v) Shop with living accommodation 35% and service fees
(vi) Other Commercial property……….35%
Unquote.
It is quite clear from the statement in the annual report that the minimum amounts set by the govt is 30-35% and NOT 20-25%.
Ministers don’t want to be responsible in so many things, so TC chairman better be alert !! not so easy now to just collect pay and say I don’t know or no comment !! You dare to say I don’t know, then we will kick you out in the next election, because you do not perform your duty. You are a Dr. full time and MP and town councillors part time.You think so easy to earn money ???
aiyoyo
as we know TC very $$$
will we residents get more ‘rebates’ very soon??
it seems we’re taking back our $,
while it’s phrased as ‘rebates’…
not sure if my thinking/understanding correct?
aiyoyo