In my own opinion, its just another round of meaningless means by the ruling party to appease the "mis-investment" of Town Council Funds in Lehmen Brothers.
Who had said "You have to walk in with both eyes open" when investors were burnt by financial products that were not regulated by MAS? Whose was Finance Minister then?
"In 1990, Mr Lee was appointed Deputy Prime Minister with responsibilities for economic and civil service matters. He also concurrently served as Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) from 1998 until 2004, and Minister for Finance from 2001 until 2007. At the MAS, Mr Lee initiated reforms to liberalise the financial sector and to shift the emphasis from one-size-fits-all regulation towards a lighter supervisory touch, relying more on disclosure and caveat emptor. " www.cabinet.gov.sg
It is a meaningless procedure to assess these PAP held TCs as there is no mention of the assessment of the "investments" made or will be made by these PAP TCs. Or even disclosures of such investment, the gain and loss of such investment.
Who ever thought of these 6 KPIs are really amature. No mention of cleaniness of the surrounding especially at common corridors?
What does Dr Teo means by saying "try our best"? He was paid to try his best?
Source: Today paper, 24 Sept 09, pg 2)
I can still remember that 2 such losses by Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council:
Creative Technology - Amount loss: not disclosed?
Lehmen Brothers - Amount loss: S$8 millions
Seem Dr Teo had not learnt from the lesson of using public fund for investment. The letter to resident by Holland-Bukit Panjang seem too proud to admit that the decision to invest is wrong:
"You may have read in the newspapers that $8 million of our Town Council's Sinking Fund was invested in Lehman Brothers-linked products. Some residents may feel that Town Council should have just put our Sinking Fund in low risk fixed deposits instead of investing in other forms of investment products.
Some (not alot?) residents may also be concerned that Town Council will raise S&CC charges or delay upgrading programmes with this investment loss. We fully understand our residents’ concerns (not worries?) and would like to take this opportunity to address your doubts (??).
We would like to assure you that our Town Council's Sinking Fund is in a healthy state. Our investments on the whole are, in fact, earning positive returns, even taking into consideration this investment loss." But the TC lost $8 million dollars of the resident's money right?
What lesson have we learnt?
We will keep fine-tuning our financial strategy. One area which we will pay more attention to is to reduce concentration risk by limiting our exposure to any particular financial institution or company. Saying this that means they will still invest?
Mr Charles Chong the "higher mortal" also want to chip in the news fasco by saying the guideline should focus on "Satisfaction".
Source: Today paper, 24 Sept 09, pg 2)
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