Money Matters

Recently, Lawrence Wong, Chan Chun Sing and Grace Fu were serendipitiously caught on camera, nodding off in parliament as the budget was presented. No wonder, the glaring omission in the grand show and tell was the traditional gee-whiz powerpoint slide-fest favoured by the Old Man. And for good reason too, it would showcase the biggest slice of the pie once again goes to.... (drum roll).... Defence, to the tune of $12.6 billion or 22.2% of the total expenditure for FY2014.

Taking second priority in the grand scheme of things is Education, allocated $11.5 billion or 20.3%. They don't want our kids to get any smarter, not when they can spot a Lieutenant Colonel at Pasir Ris Camp beating the daylights out of a stray dog with an truncheon and recognise that as an act of cruelty to animals. The outraged father said his son and 8 others were threatened to be charged if they did not keep their traps shut, not exactly the best of education in the military honour code.

With all those billions to spend at will, it makes you wonder why they still need the hike in town council charges. Maybe Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam should be blamed for announcing, as part of the budget measures, one-off Service & Conservancy Charge (S&CC) rebates of one to three months. That should be the signal for 8 People’s Action Party-run town councils to get greedy. The other 7 PAP town councils had already jumped the gun and implemented their increase in 2012.

Sembawang Town Council General Manager Soon Min Sin said, “With rising costs, some town councils will run into deficits even with the help of government grants in FY 13/14 and FY14/15 if there is no revision in S&CC.” Some of those rising costs may be traceable to "cost saving measures such as the implementation of LED lights". We don't know where they "leverage on bulk procurements" - hopefully not from some $2 company -  but 4 LED bulbs in a lift should easily cost more than $100, to do the job of a $6 fluorescent tube. Which begs the question, how many PAP town council employees do you need to change out a light bulb.......

The S&CC rates are not exactly small potatoes, they range from $19.50 (one-room flat) to $88.00 per month. Depending on where you stay, the hikes represent 2.5 to 5%, every month, for the rest of your life serving the 30 year mortgage. Tharman's act of kindness is good only for one to three months.

Define Run Away

When it comes to communication with Singaporeans, Singlish is often blamed for a lot of misunderstanding. It's not the same problem other countries face. For instance, George Bernard Shaw is attributed to have said, "England and America are two countries divided by a common language." Here, even Singaporeans sometimes fail to understand what other Singaporeans are saying.

When bus drivers stop work, it's an industrial action, not a strike. When roads are immersed under water, it's due to ponding, not a flood. When a track circuit failure occurred on the south bound line between Yew Tee and Kranji MRT stations on Monday, SMRT insisted the incident did not amount to a service disruption as the trains did not stop, "although trains ran at a slower speed." So when SMRT CEO Desmond Kuek says he will continue to make "improvements" to the system, you have to wonder whether he's referring to the language manipulation or efficient train operations.

Committee of Inquiry (COI) Chairman G Pannir Selvam must have wished he had a dictionary in hand when he had to ask pointedly whether the police at Little India "were cowardly or displayed signs of cowardice". Mr Selvam was referring to the impression conveyed by Youtube videos that the policemen were frightened and ran away from the scene - in full panic mode, abandoning expensive cars in the middle of the road. State Counsel Joshua Lim was more blunt with the choice of words for Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Edwin Yong: "Were you cowardly getting into the ambulance?"

Yong's officer, Constable Sergeant Abdul Aziz, had a easier time explaining the Singapore Police Force (SPF) definition of "running away".

Another officer explained "I was not taught how to deal with riots as our training programmes dealt more with anti-terrorism measures". That makes rioters more terrifying than terrorists like, say, Mas Selamat Kastari.

Maybe the cops who lost their innocence at Little India deserve a slice of the Pioneer Generation Package, since everything they did there seems to be a pioneering effort. As in never. done. before. But not everyone wants to be a pioneer. Pioneers, as you see in Western movies, tend to be shot by Indians.

Gimme Back My Money

Minister in the Prime Minister's Office (sounds much better than Minister Without Portfolio) Grace Fu must have felt inadequate to address the 200+ mostly dialect speaking seniors roped in to be convinced about the merits of the Pioneer Generation Package (PGP). It was not enough Lianhe Wanbao editor Lee Huay Leng was there for linguistic support, but former Rediffusion DJ Lin Ruping could speak in Hokkien and Mandarin. The million dollars may have changed her mind about the of loss of personal time with her family, but they sure didn't do a darn thing for her communication ability with the older folks.

The question would resonate in any language. Speaking in Hokkien, an auntie asked if she could get cash instead of Medisave top-ups. Ms Lin, using also Hokkien, correctly said the Government had planned for the money to go to towards health care and insurance premiums. Not to put food on the table or make sure the taps won't run dry because the utility bill is not paid on time. Then, when auntie is starving (humans can live for 46 to 73 days without food, 10 to 14 days without water), she can make her way slowly to the nearest subsidised clinic. That's how they plan to give the pioneers peace of mind. And truckloads of profit for the insurance companies.

A recent Nielsen survey reported that, when it comes to ageing, the greatest fear among Singaporeans is not having enough money to pay for medical bills during retirement. 4 out of 5 said they will have to rely on personal savings and investment as the main source of sustenance during their evening years. Their kids have their own 35 year mortgage to worry about. Nielsen's Head of Financial Services said the poll showed that Singaporeans desire to be self-reliant and self-sufficient. Here's the non-PC part: respondents consider CPF as the "government-run plan" option rather than "personal savings and investments". That must sound better in Hokkien, with the colorful dialect expletives thrown in for good measure.

Retirees told The Straits Times they try to stay active to keep healthy so they do not have to visit the doctor. They should also avoid listening to the PGP crap, in English, Mandarin or Hokkien, keep their blood pressure from sky rocketing.

Hidden Treasures

A relative had passed on, but he made sure his worldly affairs were put in order first. Although he listed all his bank accounts and particulars, he missed out on the names of nominees for his Central Provident Fund (CPF) balance. CPF would not release the information, claiming confidentiality between the statutory board and the deceased. The lawyers said they could get a court order for the details, but the next of kin decided not to take that potentially contentious route. If the beneficiaries wanted to keep it a secret, let them carry it to their own graves. Nobody knew what happened to the $80K.

The unclaimed monies at the CPF total $7 million and up. More than $50m lies in other statutory boards - Inland Revenue Authority $36m, Media Development Authority $4.2m, Public Utilities Board $1m. Unless they are claimed within 6 years, they disappear into the government coffers. It was reported last month that $118.5m are kept at the ministries and courts.

People are evicted from their flats if they missed out on the Service & Conservancy Charges (S&CC), issued with an arrest warrant for a misplaced parking fine, cut off from electricity and water supply if the bill is not paid. But when they owe you money, it's a different story.

The Ministry of Finance may oversee the sums held by the statutory boards, ministries and courts, but they sure ain't too bothered about making them report on the unclaimed money stashed away. To have an idea of the numbers involved, mosey over to www.unclaimedmonies.gov.sg and see how many debts are outstanding:
Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth - 464
Ministry of Finance - 248
Ministry of Home Affairs - 196
Ministry of Manpower - 2566
Central Provident Fund Board - 1744
Housing and Development Board - 1856
Land Transport Authority - 6054
Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board - 301
Factory Registration Fee - 2218
Registration fees for sale, resale and transfer of flats - 441
Miscellaneous - 3399
Rental Deposit - 582

The blurb on the website says that public sector agencies holding on to these monies would very much like to return the monies to the rightful owners, but have not always been able to do so because they could not contact the owners despite repeated attempts to do so. Try explaining that to the people who owe money to the same public sector agencies.

The $8b Con Job

The local paper (now ranked 150th by Reporters Without Borders) made like the FY2014 budget is in deficit to the tune of $1.16b because of the $8b boondoggle for the Pioneer Generation Package (PGP). The last time Singapore ran a deficit was in 2009 at the height of the global financial meltdown, "this year the short fall is aimed at helping the needy and elderly". Let's get the facts straight.

Half of the money is expected to be expended over the next 10 years, after which the rest of the 450,000 eligible seniors (this number is also up for debate) who are still alive will be facing other challenges - higher Goods and Services Taxes (GST), train fares, utility charges, town council tariffs, etc. You were thinking perhaps $8b divided by 450,000?

Although the Finance Minister made the announcement in February, the goodies will trickle in at a snail's pace. Additional subsidies for specialist outpatient clinics (SOCs) and polyclinics kick in only in September. Subsidies for Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) at general practitioners (GPs) and dental clinics will be available only in January 2015. Subsidies for MediShield Life premiums won't be seen until late 2015, or later. Before you even know it, 2014 will be over, and a few of the qualifying seniors would have kicked the bucket, without benefiting a cent from the "move which honours generation who built nation". There are no subsidies for burial or cremation expenses.

Bottomline, nobody will ever know how much of the promise will be delivered. What will definitely be expended in 2014 are these boondoggles:
$12.6b for Defence (up 3.2%)
$6.2b for Transport (up 3.8%)*
$4.2b for Home Affairs (up 8.4%)
$0.5b for Prime Minister's Office (up 18.5%)
$0.5b for Organs Of State (up 18.2%)
* on top of the many increases planned in collaboration with the Public Transport Council (PTC)

Economists said that the $1.16b represents a relatively small budget deficit, easily recoverable by tweaking, say the collectible $10.1b GST (up 6.1%), which is payable by all, young or old, infirmed or healthy, unemployed or salaried.

Khaw Boon Wan is obviously the wrong guy to "definitely debunk the perception that health care is unaffordable". They use to say that economic growth has priority over democracy because you can't eat democracy. Guess what? You can't eat subsidies either. Because of the co-payment element of the healthcare system, you can't afford to see a doctor without cash in your wallet, even though there's still money sitting pretty in your MediSave account.