In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
On Thursday, the AGO released its report on serious and major lapses in financial management across several government Ministries and Statutory Boards across Ministries, to the tune of hundreds of millions of tax-payers money.
The Singapore government has always pride itself for its much vaunted so-called corrupt free practices and non-tolerance to any corruption. But this revelation from the AGO clearly provides evidences that may show otherwise.
Singaporeans first need to salute and congratulate the AGO for being courageous in reporting the truth of financial lapses that may be pervasive across the government sectors. And it really begs the question of the kind of flimsy oversight being practiced under the watch of the million-dollar paid Ministers.
Surely it is only just and fair for Singaporeans to expect a much better job by those premium paid Ministers. Or are they becoming precisely sloppy due to their own self being extremely cash-rich making them lacksadalsicle towards public money under their care.
Firstly, Singaporeans demand to know from Ministers running those Ministries and Statutory boards their explanations for these serious financial lapses in their respective Ministries. Why and how can it be possible that given the enormous powers vested to them and the people they had assisting them, yet they failed miserably in supervising and ensuring such wastage of public funds given to their care by tax-payers who had to slogged it our tireless for their hard-earned money to pay taxes.
Secondly, there are plenty of precedents of cases that were given much publicity in the press that led to jail terms to several individuals for lesser amount of money involved, such as the recent case of Hari Raya lighting involving Majlis Pusat. This case involved some inflations of invoices for payments while not going into the pockets of the management team involved, were deemed as CBT worthy cases. And now the expose by the AGO are plenty of worst cases of possibly CBT worthy ones such as the gross inflation of consultation fees of $410,000 for a Bin construction that only cost $60,000. Clearly someone pocketed much public money here.
For these and many more reasons of consistency and transparency that the public demands accountability by all the Ministers whose Ministries were flagged by the AGO, for the clear failure of oversight.
What is more fundamental here is the need to call these Ministers to task as they were only a while ago demanding such serious consequences to WP and its leadership for alleged financial lapses involving the AHPETC. Ministers were so bold as to even call for severe action even for hara-kiri as a benchmark for lapses of management of public money. Now these same Ministers have been very silent when they are now caught for much bigger quantum of losses of public money that they are responsible for.
Singaporeans must not allow the AGO report to go quietly away but must insist that Ministers come clean and explain the serious failures of their own governance of public money and must take the full responsibility for it. Singaporeans remember clearly that these Ministers are paid premium justified precisely on terms that now dictate consequences upon their failures of duty.
The government must now walk their own talk.
Source: Damanhuri Abas
