In good times and in bad, there are good performers. And I think that particularly in bad times, we need people who give of their best and show example to the rest about what they can do to help the organisation. So, I think we should not begrudge the few people who get very high bonuses.
Lim Boon Heng, People’s Association deputy chairman, on two staff members of Northwest CDC who received 8-months bonuses.
How nice of Mr Lim Boon Heng to say that top performers deserve bonus. But Mr Lim didn’t go on to elaborate if the 2 CDC staff members are top performers. It is the same old tactic that PAP use. PAP also didn’t elaborate if Mr Lee Hsien Long, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Mr Goh Chok Tong and S.R. Nathan are top performers too.
of course, let’s not begrudge everything and let’s move on!
If they are that good, they must be employees of the year. Please ask ST to do an interview to show us their great deed that deserve them the bonus.
On the other hand, Dr Teo Ho Pin is really bad in public relation to turn such an instance to showcase something good into bad publicity for all.
Please replace this guy. He is not fit for the job.
Of course Lim Boon Heng has to talk this way because his performance and that of his fellow PAP ministers do not make a positive difference in this crisis,
but yet they are getting obscene salaries even after some percentage cut.
So In his own way, Lim B H is indirectly telling us folks not to begrudge the PAP elites who have retrenchment-proof jobs and recession-proof salaries.
Poor Dr Teo – he is so high strung
LBH – a good cryer at times & champion of the seniors at times,
Now an even better actor in such stressful times
No need for FT
The biggest problem with this government is the lack of transparency. Temasek and GIC lost $100 billion, Singapore is the first economy in Asia to plunge into recession. And the ministers still say they have performed well !!??
The bonuses have been given. What to do? Let’s move on.
My goodness ! With Lim BH’s reply, I’m now wondering how many of these “8 months bonus” that our govt has dished out ?
It is indeed very distasteful to be handing out 8 months bonuses in these trying times, and even more horrendous to justify them. What on earth has become to our leaders ?
Temasek and GIC will still get good bonuses. Why? If other managed, they will lost $200 billion or more..
It will be a waste if X and Y remain in PA, they should walk out from the PA and contest in the coming GE by field them in a GRC that led by a minister, then groom as a potential minister and sit in the PMO, eventually lead us and show us how to up turn the down turn. This will convince us why they deserve the 8 months bonus.
I hope the opposition has been taking notes…lots of free ammunition lately that can be used for GE.
why not 6 or 4 months bonus but 8? how is that justified? how is this derived?
enuf sed, its time!
wish there will be a dream team of 3 person cst, low and tan kin lian to contest in the next ge.
i think they will win
It took more than a week to extract a (not so clear) statement from Lim Boon Heng about the bonuses when such information ought to be readily available, more so if the People requested/demanded for it.
It behooves the government to align with the best practices and good governance by declaring the awarded bonuses on an annual basis. The bonus declaration could consist of aggregated bonuses broken down by the various ministries and statutory boards, bonuses of individuals whose appointments are permanent secretaries and higher (e.g. parliamentary secretaries, mayors, ministers of state, ministers, DPM, MM, SM, PM). In this way, we strike a balance between individual privacy and the public’s rights to know.
The government may very well resist/reject this suggestion, but it will do so at a cost of compounding the negative perception not unlike the one those Wall Street CEOs are now desperately trying to dispel.
The pot calling kettle black, Teo, Lim, you two will be thrown out in the next GE, because you two can’t perform and moreover collect so much pay and blame the recession on external factors. What are you doing in PM office ?drink coffee, shake leg ?
1 mth or 2 mth.. fine if you reason that its an incentive… 8 month? next time 12 month bonus? might as well double their pay!
Hm,,, reminds me of someone called TT Durai. Ya, how many more get 8 months, or perhaps even more, we still do not know. All I can say is that there is really something very seriously wrong with this government currently – and they know it!
None of the elites have come out to refute or deny that the rumours are false so far. Also they do not think it is wrong for civil servants to receive such high bonuses in times like these. I think this alone speaks volumes about what kind of morals our elites here have.
And I wonder what the KPIs of the 2 staff that got the 8 month bonuses were like but I guess we better not ask the Mayor because he doesn’t seem to know anything except losing our money in LB Minibonds and Creative shares. Maybe in the Northwest CDC there are no poverty cases, no medical assistance cases, no social problems and 0% unemployment rate. Say is the Northwest CDC the immortals lair of Singapore where all our elites and civil servants stay? Or am I just hallucinating again thinking that I am in the Animal Farm?
Also I can’t seem to view the webpages from the links to the MSM website. Has our MSM removed their reports or is it just my PC giving me problems?
I hope the people of SIngapore can take a good look at our elites and ask yourself – DO WE REALLY NEED SUCH PEOPLE AS OUR LEADERS?
I believe a change is long overdue and the rot has to stop.
8 mths enough or not? Top performer wor, should get more. Anyway, who are the 2? may be we can learn something from them.
When it was put to him that people hoped for leaders who were willing to make sacrifices and who were not there for the money, he replied that these were ‘admirable sentiments’. But he added that ‘we live in the real world’.
” … we should not begrudge the few people who get very high bonuses”. Should we be surprised he said this when he himself gets 12 months or more bonus recession or no recession, with hardly any work to show for it, let alone perform well? What the heck is a minister without portfolio?
Mr Lim BH, we need to make something very to you and friends: it is not for you to say “we should not begrudge the few people who get very high bonuses”, it is for us, Singapore citizens, to do that.
Simply because, we pay your salaries, right?
Moving on and not begrudge the few people may seem all right. But, there are not few people, but plenty (countless and continuous, good or bad times). How to move on if reserves are eroding till the so-called elites are gone?
in china they used to parade such model workers across the country as role models. they even commissioned sculptors to make bronze statues of such heroes of the people and placed them in public squares.
we need to know more of such exemplary workers, their works and how to emulate them. then the ordinary workers will have a chance to do well and get 8 months of bonuses, or maybe 12 mths.
If not, how to go Paris for their cooking course?
The news report is gone from ST and CNA. Another major PAP screw up.
I think these 2 guys/gals must be doing pretty good jobs for the ruling party, most likely PAP members. U wld’nt be surprised that they are potential candidates for the next general election.
Even if they are not potential candidates, they will stay loyal to PAP. Likewise those who receive the same bonuses, be it 3-8 months or the max 18months that some elites got, will be loyal and vote for PAP every election. How many civil servants are there in Singapore? What about their family members? This group will and will alway vote for PAP.
sarek_home (#26),
Check this out: CDC Bonuses Explained.
How come LIm Boon Heng did not say anything about the ignorance of the mayor aka Teo Ho Pin, for the high amount of bonus paid out? Presumably because they are birds of the same feather, ensconced in the same nest?
29) smallvice585 on March 17th, 2009 11.10 am
sarek_home (#26),
Check this out: CDC Bonuses Explained.
Thanks, the report ends with “Read the full report in Tuesday’s edition of The Straits Times.”, but I can’t find the full report today.
same old stupid f**king excuse “to retain talents”
right, so what has the “talents” done that is so exemplary that they are given 8 months or more bonuses? is so much needed to motivate staff? so what happens the next time they are given a 3 months bonus? will their motivation level drop? otherwise, are they going to keep increasing the bonuses to keep them “motivated”??
since they keep comparing to the private sectors, do they know that most of the private sectors are freezing pay and even dropping bonus or the 13 month aws totally? so what’s the govt going to do now? are they going to follow suit?
wat4stay (#32),
The crux of the public response to the CDC being over-compensated with bonuses is that the public no longer believes that there are talents in government to warrant for any kind of extravagant compensation. Neither the civil service or the PAP government want to address this issue.
Why are Singaporeans so envious and jealous of the talented and model workers ??
the thing is we don’t even know if they are really “talented” and “model workers”
Actually hor…I do not begrudge the 2 CDC staff’s 8 months pay, but I do begrudge why you Mr. Lim BH is being pay so much as a minister leh??
CDC staff 8 months bonus where got fight with you? U draw draw good pay everyday just to Kia Lai Kia Ghe (sorry, for those who don’t know Hokkien, it means “walk here and walk there” lah), as well as “talk cock like sing song” (but still got applauses you know…).
Good life hor!!! Where to find, you tell me????
I suggest TOC organise a protest rally @ HL park to show our unhappyness over Chee’s comment on dialect speaking and this 8 month bonus.