Benjamin Cheah / Andrew
Loh
Each town council has the
duty to explain to its residents how it invests its funds, what is
its philosophy, what are the risks it takes.
- Mr. Mah Bow Tan, Minister
for National Development.(Straits Times)
Mr
Mah added:
And
demonstrate that it has made those decisions in a manner which is
fair, reasonable and which residents would agree
with.
Senior Minister of State for
National Development, Grace Fu, made similar remarks when she was
asked about town councils’ investments:
We
should ask the town councils and it is something the residents
should pose to their respective town councils. (Today)
The
Online Citizen (TOC) decided to put the ministers’ words to the
test.
On
November 25th, TOC urged readers to write in to the town
councils’ chairpersons, using a template letter, to enquire about the town
councils’ investments. It has been a week since and twenty-two such
letters have been sent out via e-mail to 13 of the 14 PAP town
councils. (No letter was sent to East Coast GRC town
council.)
Of
these, a grand total of three replies were received (as at 2300
hours, Monday, Dec 1).
Below, quoted in full, are
the replies we have received thus far. The first is from Mdm
Cynthia Phua, Member of Parliament for Aljunied Group
Representative Constituency.
Thank you for your interest
on Aljunied Town Council. I have noted that you are a private
estate resident. The Aljunied
Town
Council
manages only HDB estates. We noted that the questions that you are
asking are similar questions circulated to all the Town Councils.
You may wish to access to [sic] www.Aljuniedgrc.sg for some of the
information.
The
second is from Mr. Inderjit Singh from Ang Mo Kio GRC, quoted here
ad verbatim:
We have full transparency of
all town council accounts. We publish and annual report which is
submitted to parliament and is easily available for public to see.
Also, we put up details on our TC notice boards. All the other
questions can be easily answered by looking at he town council act
which show who are qualified and who is responsible for managing
things.
I am sure you will get all
the answers you need from the above.
The
third reply is from the Public Relations Officer of Hong Kah
GRC:
We have redirected your
query to the attention of our Finance Department. They will look
into your query and give you a reply as soon as
possible.
The first
reply is disingenuous; it answers nothing. The second is remarkably
incomplete. The third well, is “re-directed” to the finance
department.
Mr. Singh
says that the Town Council’s accounts are fully transparent, and
the annual reports are available for all to see. But TOC cannot
even find the words ‘Lehman Brothers’ in these reports. Of the Town
Councils Act, the only useful titbit was that Town Councils may
invest their funds “in accordance with the standard investment
power of statutory bodies”.
Mr. Mah has
charged the Town Councils with a duty to explain how they have
invested their funds. The two replies from the MPs, mentioned
above, are not explanations; they are, instead, excuses for excuses
in lieu of answers.
But at least
Aljunied, Ang Mo Kio and Hong Kah town councils have replied to the
queries. What about the other town councils?
One of those
who wrote to question his town council had been doing so since 29
October. It was only after four weeks, four emails (including three
reminders to the town council) that he received a reply. And what
was the reply?
The Town
Council has uploaded our latest Annual Report, a copy of our reply
to the forum page as well as FAQs on the Town Council Investments
on our website…
The letter
writer was so furious that he wrote back, “This is, by any
standards, a very low level of service response. I have yet to
require any other form of assistance from the Town Council, but if
this is a gauge,” he said, “then I dread the time when I would need
to rely on your services.”
Right to
answers
Elected
representatives are answerable to their constituents. Elections are
not meant for people to choose their own dictators or for their
elected representatives to behave like one. We have chosen our
Members of Parliament, and as they are not answering our queries
about such an important matter in which millions of tax-payers’
dollars are at stake, they have shown that they are not doing the
jobs we have chosen them to do, even though they have signalled
their willingness to do so by joining a political party and running
for elections.
It is our
right to expect, and demand, answers from the people we have chosen
to lead our communities and represent our interests. It is nothing
less than their duty.
But so far,
our MPs have not done their jobs.
The next
step
The
continued non-answer replies from both the co-ordinating chairman
of the 14 PAP town councils and from the PAP MPs themselves are
making a mockery of our two ministers who, effectively, have openly
and publicly called for the town councils to explain to residents
their investments.
So far,
reporters, residents and netizens have asked Dr Teo Ho Pin,
co-ordinating chairman of the PAP town councils, and the PAP MPs to
account for their investments’ losses or profits.
None have
provided any meaningful or substantive answers.
Even
Straits Times forum letter-writers are not
fooled by Dr Teo’s beat-about-the-bush antics.
… no mention
was made of how town councils intend to make good on the loss and
avoid repeating this anomaly. If it cannot be recovered, do we
write off the millions as extraordinary expenses like a business
concern? Whether town councils are to be treated as non-profit or
business entities, Dr Teo should be more open with HDB home owners
who, as stakeholders of estate funds, have the right to
know.
It seems
that even ministers’ words mean nothing to PAP MPs, and ministers’
public statements are not taken seriously. In the end, our
ministers are made to look like fools – by their own
MPs.
Please
continue to e-mail your TCs and demand answers. Please cc a copy of
any and all replies to us, to enable us to keep track of responses.
Singaporeans deserve accountability from our constituency managers
– and not be brushed aside.
And Members
of Parliament should be more forthcoming in being transparent and
accountable to those who voted them into Parliament. This is the
very same thing which Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong urged residents
in Hougang to do with the Hougang Town Council run by the Workers’
Party MP, Mr Low Thia Kiang:
In Hougang,
let us keep Mr Low Thia Khiang on his toes. He is responsible for
running the Hougang
Town
council. But
unlike Parliament, town councils do not have open meetings where
members from other political parties can question their
performance. So, in Hougang, you have to be creative to be an
effective opposition. 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. (Sprinter)
Why then are
SM Goh’s own party colleagues keeping mum about their town
councils’ investments?
In the next
article, TOC does what the Town Councils have advised - to take a
look at their annual reports.
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/12/residents