Town Council Management Report may get 2 new indicators

QX179R SG

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of National Development (MND) may include two new indicators in its Town Council Management Report.

The two are "need for corporate governance" and "financial adequacy", derived after survey and consultation efforts with residents.

The survey was conducted with a sample of around 500 HDB residents aged 21 years old and above.

Nine in 10, or 90.4 per cent of respondents, said it was important for the town council to ensure its finances are healthy.

Meanwhile 88.4 per cent said it was important the town council complies with government rules and regulations.

The survey also found the majority of respondents are supportive of the current four indicators, such as cleanliness, maintenance of common facilities and lifts, as well as arrears in service and conservancy charges.

It also showed that the level of awareness of the report was still not high, with only 16 per cent of respondents saying they are aware of the report.

MND started publishing the Town Council Management Report in 2010 to give residents a report card on their town councils' performance in estate management.

The survey underscored that the function which respondents rated important or very important, was the cleanliness of HDB common areas and estate -- at 98.2 per cent of respondents.

The maintenance of common facilities was the second highest at 97.9 per cent, while the maintenance of lifts and breakdown prevention followed closely at 97.3 per cent.

81.9 per cent of respondents felt it was important for the town council to keep the service and conservancy charges debt low.

- CNA/wk

charlize SG

They have this fetish for performance indicators.

QX179R SG

Two new performance indicators added to town councils' report card

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of National Development (MND) added on April 1 two new indicators to the report card for town councils.

The 15 town councils will now be assessed on their corporate governance and financial adequacy, in addition to four other existing indicators.

MND said the introduction of these two indicators aims to promote greater accountability and transparency, and encourage community ownership of the management of public housing estates.

For corporate governance, town councils have to submit a self-declared checklist on their compliance with the Town Councils Act and Town Councils Financial Rules. The report will provide information on whether the town councils' auditors have made any governance-related observations in their annual financial audit.

For financial adequacy, there will be information on the adequacy of town councils' funds to meet future expenses, especially big-ticket items such as repainting and repairs, and lift replacements.

MND said this will help residents better understand whether the town councils have adequate funding through the service and conservancy charges collected.

The ministry will appoint a professional consultant to develop an appropriate assessment methodology on town councils' financial adequacy.

More details will be announced at a future date.

The existing four indicators of the report will also be enhanced to better reflect public concerns.

For cleanliness and maintenance, the report will take into account the severity of the observations. Greater weightage will be given to lapses posing hygiene, health or safety concerns.

For example, the town council will be rated more poorly for failing to replace a missing manhole cover, which poses a safety threat, than for failing to replace a missing fluorescent light-tube.

For lift performance, the enhanced report will also measure the percentage of lifts in a town that break down frequently.

The first Town Council Management Report -- which covers the period from April to September -- under the new framework will be published by the end of 2012.

- CNA/wm/ck