Category: Politik

AHPETC: No Managing Agent Has Submitted Bid

The Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) will not have a Managing Agent from July, as no one has come forward to submit a bid, said chairman Sylvia Lim in an open letter to residents published in the June edition of the Good Neighbours newsletter.

“Come July 2015, we will be embarking on direct management of the TC, as no MA (Managing Agent) has submitted a bid to work for AHPETC. We will do our best to keep costs down and protect AHPETC’s long-term financial interests,” she wrote.

She added that the Workers’ Party-run town council would continue to serve residents to the best of its ability despite the “challenging political climate”.

Ms Lim said the three-page letter aimed to clarify any misconceptions that may have arisen, as well as to update residents on matters concerning the management of the town council.

Earlier this year, a report by the Auditor-General’s Office pointed out serious lapses in the town council’s books. This sparked a two-day debate in Parliament.

Among the lapses identified was a failure to manage conflict of interest when it came to transactions involving its Managing Agent FM Solutions & Services (FMSS). Its owners were also senior party officers.

In the letter to residents, Ms Lim said AHPETC had not given contracts to friends, and that public tenders had been called in 2012.

“AHPETC does not and cannot reserve contracts for friends in a public tender,” she said, adding that a tender was not called for MA services only in the one-year period from July 2011 to July 2012.

The then newly-elected MPs had decided to award FMSS a one-year provisional contract – to ensure a smooth takeover of town management and avoid any disruptions in services to residents.

The town council is also said to have overpaid FMSS by an estimated S$1.6 million a year, over a four-year period.

But Ms Lim said what AHPETC pays its Managing Agent cannot be compared to the “weighted average” of rates that all other town councils pay.

She pointed to tables detailing the rates for residential and commercial units between 2011 and 2014, saying that there is “a lot of variation” in rates among the town councils – which reflect the different geography and requirements of each town. This, in turn, affects how they are managed.

Ms Lim added that this, and later contracts involving FMSS, were fairly priced and based on “strict reasoning” using available market information.

In wrapping up her letter, Ms Lim told residents that since the AGO report, AHPETC has made some improvements, and hired external accountants to help clean up its accounts as well as to further strengthen processes and controls.

“The work is making progress and certain financial issues will take time to resolve. AHPETC is also working towards filing its audited accounts by the deadlines set by the Ministry of National Development (MND),” she said.

MND is currently appealing a High Court decision not to appoint independent accountants to safeguard Government grants to the town council. The court did also point out that grave and serious questions had been raised about the state of the town council’s accounts.

The ministry said there is an urgent need for independent accountants to be appointed with powers of inquiry and recovery, given the “serious questions” raised about payments AHPETC had made to related parties — a reference to the town council’s managing agent firms.

The case is likely to be heard on Aug 3.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

June 11, 2015
Netizens Slam Government’s New Video On CPF Life

Last September, the government set up the CPF Advisory Panel to review Singapore’s compulsory savings system – the Central Provident Fund (CPF). This February, the panel gave its recommendations which were accepted by the government [Link].

Summary of the main changes:

1. Lump sum withdrawal

A lump sum withdrawal, at age 65, of up to 20% of a CPF member’s savings. Members will be able to withdraw up to 20% of their Retirement Account, inclusive of the $5,000 that can already be withdrawn at age 55.

2. Adjustments to the Minimum Sum

CPF members have the option to park a Basic Retirement Sum of $80,500, a Full Retirement Sum of $161,000 or an Enhanced Retirement Sum of $241,500 at age 55. The monthly payouts at age 65 will range from $650 to $1,900. Members can also withdraw any amount above the Basic Retirement Sum, provided they have a property bought using CPF funds.

3. Longer Notice to the Adjustment of the Retirement Sum

The Basic Retirement Sum ($80,500 in 2016) will be increased by 3% yearly for members turning 55. The fixed percentage increase takes into account inflation and increase in standard of living, and at the same time provides members with lead notice. This is a demarcation from the current system where the Minimum Sum is only announced a few months in advance.

To help Singaporeans understand the new CPF Life plan better, the government created an example with an accompanying video. The video was uploaded on YouTube last month (19 May):

(Mr Bakar’s story) CPF – Your Assurance in Retirement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAzJWKdMNUM

“Like Mrs Ang, Mr Bakar will also be turning 55 next year. How will the recent CPF enhancements help him grow his retirement nest egg?”

The video is linked to a post on the Facebook page of Gov.sg:https://www.facebook.com/gov.sg/posts/10153249488473686.

However, netizens are not impressed with the video. Many are calling it “government propaganda” or “wayang”. Most netizens are demanding the government to return all their CPF money to them, as per the original agreement:

On YouTube, the comments were so bad that the government was forced to shut the comment section of the video:

Source: www.tremeritus.com

June 10, 2015
White House Press Room Evauated Briefly After Bomb Threat

WASHINGTON — Secret Service officers on Tuesday evacuated the White House briefing room “as a precaution” after Washington police received a bomb threat by telephone at 1:53 p.m. specifically concerning the room, Secret Service officials said.

The evacuation was limited to the briefing room and did not affect any other sections of the White House, the Secret Service said. Tourists were also moved away from the North Lawn to the far side of Lafayette Square.

Journalists and White House officials first gathered just outside the West Wing, and were then told to assemble inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is across from the West Wing.

After a short time, the news media was allowed back into the briefing room.

Earlier on Tuesday, multiple floors of the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill were evacuated and one entrance closed after the Capitol Police received a call reporting a suspicious package in one room. The building was reopened a little while later. At the same time, Capitol Police responded to a report of another suspicious package at the Russell Senate Office Building, which turned out to be an unattended cooler.

Source: www.nytimes.com

June 10, 2015
More Ex-Miltary Men In Cabinet After Next GE?

If a report by the Sunday Times (7 June 2015) is any indication, the Singapore Cabinet is set to imbibe more ex-military men into its fold.

The current Lee Hsien Loong Cabinet has 19 ministers.

Out of these, six are former military men, including the Prime Minister and one of the deputy prime ministers, Teo Chee Hean.

They make up almost one-third of the current Cabinet.

This looks to continue, with perhaps even an increase in such credentialed men at the very heart of Government, depending on whether any incumbents step down at the next General Election (GE), which is due by January 2017.

The Sunday Times reported:

“Talk is that those from the top government ranks who may take the plunge include Chief of Defence Force Ng Chee Meng, 47, Chief of Navy Lai Chung Han, 42, Chief Guards Officer Melvyn Ong, 40…”

The three men have spent a large part of their careers in the military.

Undoubtedly, no one should expect that these highflyers in the military would assume a “lesser” political role as mere Members of Parliament (MP), if they should get elected by Singaporeans.

The men, in fact, would form the other half of the so-called “4^th Generation leadership” which PM Lee spoke of recently.

He said in a radio programme in May that the first half of the next generation of political leaders were already in place, and that the other half would be installed after the next GE.

If these three military officers join the Cabinet, it would mean Singapore may have close to 40 per cent of Cabinet made up of those from the uniformed services, assuming no further changes to the Cabinet.

This compares with the five SAF men who were in the 2001 Cabinet, out of 17 ministers.

The recruitment of military types or “scholar soldiers” into government started more earnestly in the mid-1980s, when the ruling party started to find it hard to attract candidates from the private sector.

This, however, was not planned, according to former minister George Yeo, said Diane K Mauzy, in her 2002 book, “Singapore Politics Under The People’s Action Party”.

“The transition from purely civilian government to one including Brigadier-Generals and a rear Admiral… was sudden, and it raised some qualms and presented Singapore with at least a minor image problem,” she said.

She further explained:

“To increase the prestige of the SAF, a major SAF scholarship scheme was introduced in 1971, and the ‘best minds’ were channeled that route. Later, when the academic and professional recruits did not work out for the most part, and attracting candidates from the private sector or the Administrative Service proved difficult, the military scholars, especially from the first two scholarship batches (1971 and 1972), increasingly provided the PAP with its new talent. Most of these scholar-soldiers were immediately appointed Ministers of State.”

PM Lee was among those who were awarded the SAF scholarship in 1971 to study mathematics at Cambridge University. (See here.)

Ms Mauzy also noted then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong’s views on the number of military men in Cabinet.

“Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong is aware that having too many military men in government is bad for Singapore’s image, and he also believes it would not be good to have too many in Cabinet with the same military (engineering and mathematics) mindset.”

Until these men shed their military uniforms and put on the whites of the PAP, all talk is mere speculation.

But if the talk is true, it may yet again point to a problem the PAP has faced for a long time – the inability to recruit from outside the usual hunting grounds of the military and the Civil Service.

Nonetheless, it is worth asking ourselves if having a large number of former military men in the Cabinet is something good for the nation, given the challenges we face, which calls for experience in the private sector, and a non-conformist, out-of-the-box mindset.

The last thing Singapore needs, in going forward, is groupthink at the very heart of government.

But for now, the so-called “4th Generation” leadership under the PAP looks set to be led by military men.

Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

June 9, 2015
Self-Serving PAP Will Never Serve Singaporeans

Dear Singaporeans who still have blind faith in PAP,

Please do yourselves and our country a favour by scrutinising PAP’s policies, especially after current MP Goh Chok Tong became PM in 1990.

If you have still not realised PAP has been self serving and using shortcuts to achieve miraculous economic ‘growth’, it’s about time you wake up to reality. You should also be extremely concerned about PAP concealing information for 5 decades. As responsible citizens, it is our right and responsibility to criticise, question and demand answers from the government. If not, the government will continue to make silly and utterly stupid statements. Their thinking impacts our lives.

Goh’s analogy of the (PAP) government as our parents and citizens as children comes to mind with Goh brazenly claiming citizens “freely criticise it (PAP) for the slightest mistakes…”. ** The absurdity of Goh’s analogy has been confirmed by the FB commentshere. Goh, aka Lau Goh, must have been in dreamland when he claims PAP has been criticised for the slightest mistakes. Questions which should have been directed at Lau Goh:

– Poor planning resulting in a housing bubble where PAP has still not been able to bring prices down to earth after 8 rounds of cooling measures since 2009, is this one of the “slightest mistakes”?

– Overcrowded public transportation (even on weekends), providing foreigners hundreds of million$ in annual tuition grants while giving peanuts to locals, public hospitals’ ‘innovative’ tent and corridor wards, skyrocketing cost of living, etc, are these considered “slightest mistakes”?

If these questions are posed to Tin Pei Ling, Lau Goh’s GRC teammate, she wouldn’t know what to say. Neither would you nor other PAP supporters. If epic failures are considered “slightest mistakes”, what would be a grave mistake to Lau Goh? Do you want to wait till our country is doomed?

Using the same Lau Goh’s analogy for our CPF retirement funds, don’t you find it strange that your parents (PAP) wants to retain your (children) retirement funds despite CPF members being of grandparent age? If your real parents insist on doing so, it is pretty certain such a relationship lacks trust, especially after your parents have hidden relevant information from you for decades. Hmm… how come Lau Goh is surprised by the increasing distrust of PAP?

Would caring parents see their children (you) struggle with raising their (PAP’s) grandchildren but still insist on locking up your retirement funds in a where-is-my-money account? If PAP were our parents, they must have been terribly cruel to think nothing of their children’s suffering.

When you really reflect on what our jiak liao bee politicians say, instead of blindly accepting every word, you will know a lot of it is rubbish. Including the above analogy.

By further scrutinising PAP policies, you will also realise it has taken our country in the wrong direction and that we have been going downhill for more then 2 decades. But instead of fixing flawed policies, PAP prefers to engage in propaganda to focus our attention on its achievements during the 70’s and 80’s, ie LKY’s overrated ‘indispensible’ leadership.

PAP is so adept at using the mainstream media to mask its failures but if you give this the slightest thought, you would know that PAP has not resolved any chronic issue. Yes, NONE! What we have are only promises that there will be solutions at a future date.

An obvious instance would be the construction of 204,000 residential units by 2016 which may satisfy future demand but does little to address the issue of unaffordable housing prices. All public flats,which must also include resale HDB flats, are still unaffordable to ordinary citizens.

When Lau Goh became PM in November 1990, the Resale Price Index of HDB flats was about 25 (not shown in chart below). In 6 short years, our asset enhancement policy caused prices to quadrupled with the RPI hitting 99 and its currently more than 5 times at 135.6 in Q1 2015. PAP had also used high prices (high GDP) to justify stratospheric ministerial salaries. Was PAP serving Singaporeans?

Image source
For 25 years, Singapore has been going downhill because PAP knows nothing about REAL economic growth except by growing the population. This shortcut continued well into 2010 when someone finally admitted “We’ve grown in the last five years by just importing labour”. That person was none other than Lee Kuan Yew.

From 1990 to 2010, our population had increased by about 2 million, with foreigners forming about 70% of the annual increase of 100,000. PAP is definitely aware of its pseudo-growth model and that’s the reason for bulldozing the PWP through parliament.

Till today, PM Lee still does not know how to grow the economy except by growing the foreigner population at citizens’ expense. Five years after “We’ve grown … by just importing labour”, PM Lee doesn’t seem to have understood the significance of what his father had said. PAP still prioritises it interests over the well being of citizens.

For years, citizens have been told by PAP that if costs are too high, foreign businesses will not invest in Singapore or pack up and go somewhere else. But PAP makes no mention of the real killer which is high rental. Many businesses, including retail, have folded due to significantly high rental cost. Even hawkers cannot survive and have been replaced by foreigners. By not reducing the price of land and rental and continuously depressing wages, who is PAP serving?

Fearing the loss of power in the next GE, PAP has belatedly made a U-turn maintain a tight foreign worker policy as opposed to 2 decades of red carpet treatment for foreigners. It appears our new MOM Minister Lim S S does not believe in previous PAP’s doomsday BS. But one has to be wary of PAP’s immigration policy flip flop; the devil in in the details.

PAP has never been our servant and never will. Lee Kuan Yew has already made it abundantly clear – PAP does whatever it thinks is right, never mind what the people think.

As a fellow Singaporean, I would advise you to scrutinise government policies instead of being repeatedly taken in by PAP’s propaganda. For our children’s sake and for our country, it’s time we realise the truth – a self-serving PAP can never serve Singaporeans.

Phillip Ang

** “While they (Singaporeans) do not criticise their parents’ imperfections, when it comes to the Government, they see only warts… and freely criticise it for its slightest mistakes or when we disagree with it.” – Source: Askmelah

Source: https://likedatosocanmeh.wordpress.com

June 9, 2015