http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sg_Review/message/1878?unwrap=1
Comments By Mellanie Hewlitt
Singapore Review
1 Oct 2004
Transparency in SOEs, GLCs & State Administration
With an obscene amout of surplus in Medisave Reserves, huge hidden
fiscal
surpluses enrich the Singapore government and state enterprises but
impoverish
the private sector and tax payers.
Lack of Transparency is a common issue with the CPF Board and State
Owned
Enterprises. The ST article (in 1 Oct 2004 issue) below is
vaguely
reminiscient of similiar revelations of the huge hidden reserves
which the
National Kidney Foundation had stashed away, even as it sort more
charitable
funding from the general public. Indeed the common theme in both
CPF and NKF
exercises is that they have the central objective of siphoning even
more funds
from tax-payers into the already fat coffers of many state owned
vehicles. All
this is cleverly done under the guise of schemes and policies which
are
supposedly designed to look after the welfare of Singapore
Citizens.
But the abuse is quite glaring since money only flows one way:-
into the
pockets of the state administrators. There is no outflow from the
state to the
public. What happens to the billions of dollars in reserves is also
a total
mystery.
The high-surplus strategy lowers Singapore's standard of living.
Deprived of
disposable income by numerous taxes, Singaporeans consistently
consume a share
of GDP 10-20 percentage points below Hong Kong levels, while Hong
Kong
maintains a higher per-capita income. It was only recently that the
CPF Board
has also stepped up measures to sue "Medisave Laggards" who fail to
top-up on
their own Medisave accounts.
These Big structural surpluses most benefit the ruling party, to
the detriment
of the private sector. Unconstrained by tight finances, the
government pays
cabinet members and civil servants some of the world's highest
public-sector
packages. See:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sg_Review/message/1182
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sg_Review/message/3
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sg_Review/message/1321
A variety of analytical shields obscures the embarrassing size of
government
surpluses. Accounting principles differ from global standards. A
bewildering
array of statutory boards, government-linked companies, investment
corporations
and holding companies transact among themselves at undisclosed
prices. Key data
such as the government's share of national savings and the profits
of holding
companies and investment corporations are kept secret. One analyst
calls the
national accounts a "masterpiece of obfuscation." See:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sg_Review/message/87
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sg_Review/message/1270
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sg_Review/message/1170
The other troubling issue which is tactfully avoided by the
government is the
fact that CPF investments (and returns/profitability of State Owned
Companies
as wells as GLCs and TLCs) are under performers and laggards well
behind
private sector standards. Is this is an intended result of figures
manupulated
to obscure huge returns, or are State Owned Entities really so
appalingly bad
at earning decent returns on investments? No one will ever know the
answers.
It is indeed cruel irony that State Organisations and Government
Linked
Companies are ripping-off the very individuals which they are
established to
protect. So blatant is the abuse of public funds that such
occurences have now
been institutionalised and formalised, with the Constitution
re-written to
allow the state and State Owned Enterprises direct access to
state/public
reserves. All this has happened with the blessing of the Auditors
General
office and Finance Ministry. See:
http://www.singaporedemocrat.org/media_releases_display.php?id=119
http://www.parliament.gov.sg/Legislation/Htdocs/Bills/0400012.pdf
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sg_Review/message/1175
Legitimisation of Corruption and Nepotism has been tansformed into
a art-form
by Singapore's Ruling Bureucracy, all at the expense of the man on
the street.
For more recent related articles see:
Understanding Legitimized Corruption;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sg_Review/message/1808
Lifting The Veil On Singapore Politics
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sg_Review/message/1755