Fruit platters go, but street lights will stay
By M. Nirmala
CUT waste? Cut out the fruits then.
One government department accepted this idea from a civil servant
who felt that serving fruit at its meetings was a waste of
money.
The savings: $132 a year.
The Public Service Division said it used to serve fruit during
monthly meetings for directors of personnel as the sessions last
about 2 1/2 hours. But now it will just serve drinks.
The suggestion was among 1,200 received by the Cut Waste Panel set
up three months ago to look into suggestions from the public to
trim fat in the public sector.
Yesterday, it released details of the ideas accepted and rejected
and those already being carried out by government agencies.
One writer thought it unnecessary for one government department to
take out newspaper advertisements to congratulate another.
The writer targeted the Singapore Tourism Board, which said it
would stop the practice unless there are 'exceptional
grounds'.
Another writer suggested turning some unused motorcycle lots in
Telok Blangah into car park lots instead, and that will be done
too.
But a power-saving idea had to be rejected.
A writer felt street lighting was a waste and recommended halving
the power bill by switching off every other lamp on all
roads.
Today's cars come with good headlights so that should do, the
writer felt.
Not so, said the Land Transport Authority.
Alternate lighting would create an imbalance to uniform
illumination on the roads - something called the 'zebra effect', it
said.
'The contrast between the bright and dark areas will cause
tiredness to motorists. This is a safety risk,' it said.
So street lights will stay, but the LTA will look at using
lower-wattage and energy-efficient lamps.
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oh yeah.. save $132, waste millions of dollars having "ministers of
state" which are kind of redundant seeing there is already a bloody
minister running the ministry?
or are they saying that their minister is too incompetent to be
able to run the ministry by himself? then why the high pay?
cut waste at the right places... stop cutting the little bits and
pieces which don't add up to a fraction of what we're throwing
away, padding the high places of power with semi-sentient
braindeaths like Cedric Foo
