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When chicken becomes too expensive, eat fish instead.
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When fish also becomes too expensive, eat tofu and eggs for protein instead.
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When eggs also become too expensive, switch to artificial eggs or lay your own (we must be self-sufficient and not develop a crutch mentality).
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When vegetables become too expensive, source for alternatives such as tree bark.
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When water becomes too expensive, drink pre-treated NeWater dispensed from your own body. Or ask a local poet to spare you some.
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When teh-oh at the kopi tiam becomes too expensive, make your own at home with pre-treated and unboiled NeWater. (Boiling is unnecessary and too expensive.)
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When newspapers become to expensive, read blogs instead (but it’s wiser to avoid bimbotic bloggers like Molly unless you are equally bimbotic and prejudiced).
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When bus fares become too expensive, take trains.
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When train fares become too expensive, take buses.
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When transport becomes too expensive, take trishaws and refuse to pay the poor uncle.
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When workers get too expensive, retrench them or cut their pay.
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When your pay is not enough to pay for your bills, stay loyal to your current employer and perhaps take up a second job. [This helps to solve the problem of rampant job hopping and the problem of not having “enough people to match the current rate of job creation” (Wong Kan Seng, as quoted by the ST)
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When parliamentary debates get too expensive, outsource them to bloggers like Molly Meek who entertains people non-stop with her stupid claims.
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When medical bills become too expensive, die and let others benefit from the compulsory annuity scheme.
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When ministers get too expensive, vote for different people instead.
https://mollymeek.livejournal.com/171615.html
How to cope with rising costs
Molly, icon of irresponsible blogging and bimbotic, prejudiced commentary, is concerned that people out there are finding inflation a bit too much to bear. (These people are wrong. Inflation, just like retrenchment, is good for Singapore.
Without inflation, Singapore will stagnate and Mr. Jones will come back.
But there are simple ways of dealing with inflation and Molly shall offer hers.
Oh, by the way, the first method is stolen from MP Halimah Yacob.
“MP for Jurong GRC Halimah Yacob, who will quiz Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang on what the govenrment is doing, said more can be done to promote alternative food sources.
‘For example, the price of chicken may be rising fast, but we can encourage Singaporeans to turn to alternative sources of protein, such as fish,’ she told The Straits Times.” (Straits Times, November 9)
https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/c...s_but_is_fish/
http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%...109-35475.html
Parliament to debate inflation, Medishield issues
Keith Lin
Fri, Nov 09, 2007
The Straits Times
THE rising cost of living will be high on the agenda when Parliament sits on Monday.
Two MPs have tabled questions linked to concerns that fast-rising food prices are causing a dent in Singaporeans??? wallets. The price of wheat, for example, is at global historic highs due to droughts in Australia and crop failures in the US. This in turn has pushed up cost of animal feed and meat.
MP for Jurong GRC Halimah Yacob, who will quiz Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang on what the govenrment is doing, said more can be done to promote alternative food sources.
‘For example, the price of chicken may be rising fast, but we can encourage Singaporeans to turn to alternative sources of protein, such as fish,’ she told The Straits Times.
Issues relating to the MediShield scheme are also expected to receive a prominent airing, with three questions tabled on the topic.
One is from MP for Jalan Besar GRC Denise Phua, who wants Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan to clarify whether special-needs children are covered under the health insurance scheme.
‘Many families with such children have told me that commerical insurance providers do not provide medical cover for those with mild disabilities, such as Asperger’s Syndrome,’ Ms Phua said.
She hopes the Government can help reduce their medical bills, which may stretch over their lifespans, by including their illnesses under Medishield coverage. '
I hope that the Government will give these children a chance to have their medical problems covered,’ she said.
Five new Bills will be introduced, while another five Bills introduced earlier are up for debate.
One slated for debate is the National Registry of Diseases Bill, which calls for the setting up of a national disease database to collate data on common illnesses. Other parliamentary questions include three by Ms Ellen Lee (Sembawang GRC), who will ask various ministers for measures to combat cyber-addiction, and one by Madam Ho Geok Choo (West Coast GRC) on ways to prevent the property market from over-heating.
https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2...s-over-says-pm
Days of GLC top execs getting fat salaries over, says PM
By Bernama - July 9, 2018 @ 11:40am
KUALA LUMPUR: The days of top executives of government-linked companies (GLCs) drawing fat salaries regardless of their companies’ performance is over, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has warned.
Giving the rationale for the move, he said what happened in the past was that the government found it convenient to place its supporters in these GLCs, and these executives got a good income from the companies.
“The result is that we have a lot of people who are non-professionals and unfamiliar with business, but holding high posts in the GLCs, and this of course defeats the whole purpose.
“The GLCs inevitably lose money, but the salaries of these people is very high and they enjoy all this without bothering whether the company makes a profit or not,” he said in an interview with Investine, the Hong Kong-based business news portal covering mainly South East Asia.
The prime minister pointed out that the Pakatan Harapan government now wants to place professionals in these GLCs and their salaries would not be very high.
“The salaries may be slightly higher than that of the civil service, but if they perform, then we’ll pay them a bonus. Otherwise, they won’t receive the high income as currently, and we will change the management so that we appoint professionals,” Dr Mahathir further warned.
He said it did not matter whether “they are party people or not”, but it is key that they must be professionals fitting into the business of the company.
In the interview conducted by Investvine Director Imran Saddique and correspondent Firoz Abdul Hamid, Dr Mahathir spoke at length about the concept of GLCs and Khanazah Nasional Bhd, the strategic investment fund of the Malaysian goverment which he set up in the 1990’s when he was prime minister for the first time.
He said the idea was prompted by the apparent inability of the Malays to retain shares which they acquired under the government’s affirmative action.
“When they get their shares, they inevitably sell them all and then they go back to having no shares. That way they enrich the very people that they are supposed to chase after.
“So, we thought that instead of giving directly to the Bumiputeras, we’ll create a body that can hold the shares until such time when they have the capacity to retain those shares.
“That was the original intention, but along the way, Khazanah decided that it should take take all the shares for itself and if they are good shares, why not acquire the shares at the time of listing when the price was very low.
“And so they forgot entirely about holding the shares for the Bumiputeras " he added.
Instead, Khazanah decided that they should be holding the shares forever as part of the companies owned by the government.
The prime minister said the government then no longer followed the initial intention of the formation of Khazanah.
Moving forward, the government would now have to go through the huge number of companies that Khazanah had shares in and categorize them into the ones that could be profitable, might be profitable and those that might be losing money.
“We need to talk about closing some of these companies to reduce the overall number and to a certain extent go back to the original intention of holding the shares allocated to the Bumiputeras until such time when they can buy,” said Dr Mahathir. – Bernama
https://mothership.sg/2017/04/former...donation-saga/
Ex-PAP MP & ex-FAS chairman Zainudin Nordin among 4 arrested & out on police bail for donation saga
New plot twist.
By Chan Cheow Pong | April 25, 2017
The drama surrounding a questionable half-million-dollar donation to the ASEAN Football Federation by Tiong Bahru Football Club (TBFC) and Hougang United chairman Bill Ng just can’t stop.
Reports by Today and The Straits Times on April 25 revealed that former Football Association of Singapore (FAS) president Zainudin Nordin, FAS General Secretary Winston Lee, Ng and his wife Bonnie Wong are currently out on police bail.
According to Today, the four were initially arrested before being released on bail “to ensure they will return for further investigations.”
The Straits Times reported that the bail amounts differ among the individuals and Ng’s bail had been set at S$100,000.
The latest developments come in the wake of a police report made by Sports Singapore on April 19 against TBFC for suspected misuse of club funds, and an investigation into allegations of a senior official – understood to be Ng – attempting to obstruct the completing of audits of three S.League sit-out clubs.
The police report had also prompted a dramatic police raid on the FAS, and the clubhouses of the three football clubs – Hougang United, TBFC, and Woodlands Wellington FC (WWFC) the next day.
Zainudin is currently a deputy principal (development) at the Institute of Technical Education College East. He was a former PAP Member of Parliament, and had helmed the FAS from 2009-2016.
Besides making brief comments to the media after being questioned by the authorities, he has kept a low profile since the saga erupted on April 13.
Despite the ongoing investigations, the FAS inaugural election on April 29 is set to proceed.
Team Game Changers led by Ng are facing off with Team LKT helmed by former FAS vice-president Lim Kia Tong.
Related articles:
FAS Elections: Team LKT strives to distance itself from the donation saga
Former FAS president Zainudin finally free to comment, denies having any business ties with Bill Ng
Football Donation Saga: Former FAS president Zainudin’s silence is deafening
Football Drama: More questions for the FAS before the upcoming election.
Football leadership elections: Power, “donations” and much intrigue revealed in the campaign
Top photo from FAS
https://www.change.org/p/mindef-ns-d...ootball-talent
NS Deferment for Ben Davis to Develop Singapore Football Talent
j chan started this petition to MINDEF
“I will enjoy the achievement and success so far, but now it gives me the motivation, drive and desire to push on to achieve the ultimate goal of playing in the Fulham first team in the Premier League,” — Ben Davis
“Ben has been trained here in Singapore and shows to all Singaporeans that you can be coached in Singapore and achieve the highest level for a 17-year-old on the international stage." — Harvey Davis, Ben’s father
Benjamin Davis is the first Singaporean footballer to sign a professional contract with a top-tier English Club, Fulham. He was first awarded a two-year scholarship in July 2017 and due to his outstanding performance on the field, he was among the first 5 scholars to be awarded a pro contract.
As a Singaporean, however, Ben has to enrol for compulsory 2-year National Service. He has applied for long term deferment so that he can continue developing his talent in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in one of the best leagues in the world.
This was rejected by the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) on 15 July on the grounds that he “does not meet the criteria for long-term deferment from Full-time NS”. In sports, “deferments are granted only to those who represent Singapore in international competitions like the Olympic Games and are potential medal winners for Singapore”. Thus, “it would not be fair to approve applications for deferment for individuals to pursue their own careers and development”.
In the last 15 years, only three have met this criteria, they are Singapore’s first Olympic gold medallist Joseph Schooling, fellow swimmer Quah Zheng Wen and sailor Maximillian Soh.
This petition is to appeal against that decision. We believe that Ben Davis should be given the opportunity to develop his talent. Soccer is a sport that is very close to Singaporeans - just look at the current 2018 FIFA World Cup fever in Singapore. In addition, soccer is fundamentally a team sport where a single talent cannot just bring the entire nation to an international stage (unlike Swimming and Sailing, sports which the previous three individuals are from). Being able to play on an international stage would help Ben Davis to not only bring recognition to Singapore as he gets identified as a Pro player hailing from our tiny red dot, he could also help to up the game in Singapore by bringing his learnings from the international arena to his fellow players in Singapore and elevate the sport here.
It can be argued that Fandi Ahmad, a talented Singaporean soccer player who played for Niac Mitra (Indonesian FC) and FC Groningen (Netherlands FC), was able to help Singapore achieve three silver medals in the SEA games because of his international experiences.
“There are no shortcuts to building a team each season. You build the foundation brick by brick.” — Bill Belichick, NFL head coach
Let’s not be unrealistic and expect one player to lift Singapore sports to reach international standards. Instead, let’s invest in our young talents and take our first step towards this goal.
—
Related articles:
MINDEF rejects Fulham signee Ben Davis’ application for NS deferment:
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...or-ns-10530834
NS could hamper Fulham midfielder Ben Davis’ progress, say members of football community:
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...mbers-10532210
Just how difficult is it to get a professional contract at an EPL club:
https://mothership.sg/2018/07/just-h...t-an-epl-club/
DPM Tharman praises French football system that produced World Cup winners:
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/tharman-pr...062732738.html
3 ongoing petitions with 15,000 signatures test government’s pledge to listen to views:
http://theindependent.sg/3-ongoing-p...sten-to-views/
Ben Davis’ Fulham contract no different from other pre-enlistees’ personal pursuits: MINDEF:
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...indef-10537186
Ben Davis’ NS deferment appeal will be rejected if same facts presented: Heng Chee How:
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...facts-10537648
Thailand’s lifeline for Singapore’s Ben Davis might be too good to refuse:
https://www.fourfourtwo.com/sg/featu...oo-good-refuse
Here’s more info on Ben Davis and his skills:
http://www.sportingnews.com/ca/socce...y1pbu2altzj973
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...ps-in-10537180
Auditor-General finds lapses in management of contracts, gaps in IT and financial controls
17 Jul 2018 02:54PM (Updated: 17 Jul 2018 04:54PM)
SINGAPORE: Several ministries and government agencies have been flagged by the Auditor-General for lapses in four categories - contract management, IT controls, financial controls and gaps in the management of R&D grants.
These gaps were laid out in a report by the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) released on Tuesday (Jul 17), after its audit of government accounts for the financial year 2017/2018.
The audit covered the financial statements of all 16 ministries and eight organs of state, five government funds, nine statutory boards, four government-owned companies and three other accounts.
Ministries and agencies singled out in the AGO report for lapses include the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), Ministry of Education (MOE), the People’s Association (PA), the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).
LAPSES IN CONTRACT MANAGEMENT
The PA was flagged for lapses in procurement and contract management for major events such as Chingay 2017 as well as Chinese New Year 2017.
For instance, AGO’s checks found that the PA had allowed an officer to make overseas purchases for costumes and accessories worth S$142,200 for Chingay Parade 2017, using cash or through a remittance agent.
“AGO found that some of the cash sales receipts submitted by the officer had tell-tale signs which cast doubts on their authenticity,” said the report.
“Thus, there was no assurance that the amount of reimbursement claimed by the officer was the actual amount of cash that was paid by the officer to the overseas vendor.”
The AGO also found that the PA did not properly manage welfare assistance schemes which included vouchers and groceries to needy residents.
READ: Lapses in People’s Association’s procurement, welfare assistance management
Irregularities in contract management were also observed at MINDEF, MOE and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), according to the report.
In the case of MOE, lapses were found in school development projects managed by consultants engaged by the Education Ministry.
There were delays in payments to contractors ranging from three months to more than three years for 30 school construction projects. The final amount due to the contractors totalled S$13.61 million, AGO said.
There were also cases where modifications to construction contracts were not properly managed, resulting in an estimated overpayment of S$154,900, said the AGO.
“Given these lapses, there was no assurance that MOE had exercised adequate oversight of its consultants on issuance of final accounts and management of contract variations as well as financial prudence in the use of public funds in these development projects,” it added.
In a statement on Tuesday, MOE said it is addressing the concerns raised by the AGO and is improving its internal processes.
“MOE acknowledges the importance of prompt issuance of final accounts in our school development projects. We are working with our consultants to issue the final accounts of all 14 outstanding contracts by end 2018,” it said.
The ministry is also recovering the overpayment of S$154,900 arising from contract variations, it said.
READ: Overpayment of grass-cutting fees; lax procurement controls uncovered at MINDEF
SCDF BACKDATED RECORDS FOR VEHICLE MAINTENANCE
One of the lapses which the AGO described as “serious” was the backdating of records by the SCDF relating to its vehicle maintenance contracts.
The AGO noted that from the documents submitted for audit, records for 104 vehicle servicing jobs were not authentic. They included duplicated servicing records for the same job, as well as discrepancies between the two sets of records.
Said the AGO report: “SCDF investigated and found that these 104 servicing records had indeed been created and backdated to meet AGO’s requests for the records. They were created by three SCDF officers and the contractors.”
The officers responsible have been disciplined and the contractors taken to task by SCDF.
In addition, the audit found that SCDF did not have adequate procedures to ensure that two contractors had provided the required maintenance that cost a total of S$1.8 million a year.
AGO’s test checks found that S$120,000 was paid out for services that were not provided.
SCDF had relied on servicing schedules provided by the contractors and did not have procedures to establish whether vehicles had been sent for the required servicing at the right frequency, AGO said. It also did not ensure that vehicles due for servicing had indeed been checked.
SCDF acknowledged that more checks were needed and said that an integrated logistics management system will be introduced by 2020. It will be recovering the wrong payments and tightening internal procedures so that it only pays for services rendered, according to the report.
WEAKNESSES IN IT CONTROLS
As in previous years, the audit found common weaknesses in IT controls which included lapses in user accounts and access rights.
The Education Ministry, for instance, was flagged for lapses in the monitoring of IT administrators’ activities. This was for the two IT systems that support the management of financial transactions of student’s Edusave and Post-Secondary Education (PSE) accounts.
“AGO noted that MOE did not log and review the activities of seven IT administrators who were responsible for scheduling and executing computer scripts to perform financial transactions on students’ Edusave or PSE accounts,” said the report, adding that the activity logs of 16 servers for the two systems did not capture details of the administrator’s activities.
In the case of MINDEF, the AGO found that there were instances where 33 authorised users with rights to perform procurement activities might have shared their accounts with unauthorised individuals.
“All these lapses in IT controls exposed entities to the risk of unauthorised operation of the IT systems and of compromising the integrity and confidentiality of the data in the IT systems,” said the report, noting that similar weaknesses were found in other public sector entities audited last year.
RENTAL NOT CHARGED FOR PHOTO BOOTH AT ICA
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) was found to have let a recreation club set up photo booths on its premises without charging rental.
The checks were conducted after a complaint alleging that money received from the public by the club was diverted to fund welfare activities and functions attended by ICA staff members.
ICA explained that the practice was a historical legacy and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) had given approval for the club to operate photo services back in the early 1980s. Funds were mainly used for sports and recreational activities for current or retired ICA staff, AGO found.
Given changes in government policy since, MOF advised that ICA should seek to recover about S$6 million in forgone rental dating back to 2002. ICA said it stopped allocating its space to the recreation club from Jul 1 and would use up club funds of S$2.45 million to pay for rents owed.
R&D FUNDS
This year’s report also focused the management of research funds in a thematic audit, or in-depth examination, of research and development grant projects managed by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the National Research Foundation (NRF).
AGO observed that the Government’s total R&D expenditure has expanded and the five-year grant budget for A*STAR was S$5.26 billion while that for NRF was S$3.65 billion.
It audited 286 of more than 1,000 projects with a value of S$1.48 billion, or 61.2 per cent of S$2.42 billion awarded in total.
It found that while A*STAR had adequate processes for inviting and approving grant proposals, as well as for monitoring grant utilisation, it was slow to recover underutilised funds and did not obtain audit reports for some projects.
Meanwhile, NRF had “significant control weakness” for the disbursement, monitoring and review of grants, AGO said.
Grant management practices among its directorates were inconsistent and most of them relied on annual declarations by grant recipients for fund requests and project deliverables.
It was lax in verifying fund requests totalling S$52.2 million and in some cases, discrepancies in project deliverables were not detected or not followed up on, AGO said.
The two agencies said in a joint release that they will address all of AGO’s findings and “will take the necessary action to enhance the processes for R&D grant management”.
In response to AGO’s observation that grant management practices were inconsistent, NRF added that it already has a guide to guide all its partners on the management of R&D grants and a “positive affirmation framework” established by NRF’s audit committee.
However, it will now implement a system of selective checks to “provide stronger assurance”.
In general, Auditor-General Willie Tan noted that some observations in this year’s report were similar to those highlighted in the last few years, although the lapses involved different entities.
“More should be done to address these concerns so that the financial governance and controls of the public sector as a whole would be strengthened,” he said.
The AGO added that it will continue to work with the public sector entities to ensure that follow-up actions are taken.
Source: CNA/hm/(gs)
https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/201...-and-let-live/
“I have a job and a roof over my head, I am satisfied so let’s live and let live.”
Published on 2018-07-18 by The Online Citizen
by Augustine Low
This is the prevailing sentiment for many Singaporeans.
Regimes and ruling parties are in control as long as the majority of people think along that line.
It’s when they start veering away from concern about bread and butter to resentment over injustice, inequality and lack of human dignity that upheaval and revolution take place.
In Singapore, people generally still prefer to talk bread and not politics.
But we wouldn’t know for sure when the tipping point is, the point at which people collectively wake up and demand for change.
Ho Kwon Ping, Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings, gave his take recently on the situation in Singapore in relation to the Malaysian tsunami. Many saw it as him giving the verdict that the People’s Action Party would not suffer the same fate as the Barisan Nasional.
However, he did have his finger on what the tipping point would be, possibly predicating the fall of the PAP: the day when nepotism and cronysim set in, when the PAP creates “quasi cronyism amongst cliques of elites,” drawing people from immediate circles of friends, the military and administrative service.
He also signalled that the detrimental effects would be compounded if complacency sets in, exemplified by lack of internal competition within the PAP and the use of the “same old formulas” to solve problems.
A case could be made that the handwriting is on the wall, that some of the rot may have already been seeping in.
Has the PAP taken pains to consolidate an inner core of cronies and elites?
Has internal competition become ‘soft’ and flabby?
Is there a lack of motivation and appetite to break out of the same old mould and same old formulas that have taken the PAP this far?
The worst thing that could befall the PAP is when it becomes a party of paranoia, inward-looking and detached, and isolated from the needs and cries of the people.
The real danger is that it gets carried away with its own sense of invulnerability, giving voice and reason only to a cadre of yes-men and yes-women.
Things can happen at breakneck speed and in life, we learn to never say never.
But there are danger signs for the PAP and unless it takes stock and takes heed, the tipping point could come when it least expects it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
matey1982
also read somewhere is that by age 21, he also has to decide if he’s going to relinquish his UK passport
from 1 point, if he keeps his UK passport, he will have lesser hindrance in trying to secure a playing career in UK/europe
if he were to hang onto either thai or sg passport, to be honest, sure hit work permit redtape if he wants to play football in UK or europe due to the tight WP conditions…something like they need to be playing in top 50 or what knots nations based on fifa rankings…failing whh the club can appeal on exceptional basis…
given sg or thailand’s fifa ranking, remote chance of making it to play in europe…plus u think the clubs would wan to lugi their limited non-EU player slots…read that Barcelona’s coutinho is in midst of securing portugese passport, by virtue of marriage to portugese wife, so that he can be counted as EU even though we all know he’s alrdy a full fledged Brazilian international
https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/201...ith-ben-davis/
A missed opportunity to get things right with Ben Davis
Published on 2018-07-18 by The Online Citizen
by Lee Yung Hwee
There has been a tremendous amount of coverage and opinions on Ben Davis in the recent days. He is one of our first Singaporeans to be signed into a top-tier football academy with newly elevated EPL football club Fulham on a 2-year scholarship.
For those who are unfamiliar with Singapore football, we are currently ranked #169 in FIFA and our football scene has been floundering since the days of the Malaysia Cup. Our world cup dream once targeted by 2010 has come and gone by. Today we are still nowhere near it.
I am not a major football fan but I had the opportunity to watch some of the recent World Cup matches and I could not help but reminisce about the days when Singapore played the Malaysia Cup. It was not as internationally acclaimed as the World Cup or the other international leagues but it was something we were in together as a nation. There was great pride.
The pride and joy we had as we watched some of our players like Fandi Ahmad, V. Sundramoorthy, Nazri Nasir, Malek Awab, Steven Tan, Lim Tong Hai, Kadir Yahaya, Aide Iskandar, David Lee and many more others who played for our country. They played their hearts out with blood, sweat & tears and we won or lost together as a nation. Supporters would travel up to Malaysia in the busloads to support our home boys. Stadiums were packed and you would hear the lion roar.
Since then, our football scene faded away and so did my following. We went on to win 4 times at the AFF championships and the players did well to win them but that was as far as we went.
Our local league then, the S-league, lacked the excitement and attraction with games played to empty stadiums. There was no excitement like the other leagues you see in the other countries. A former S-league player reportedly once lamented that the S-league was a graveyard for footballers (Source: CNA). The importation of foreign players did not improve things and it was just a really sad state of affairs for our football scene.
Yet to this day, we fail to recognise our mistakes and persist in policies that are wrong. We have been a society that has been built on rigid policies and economic growth at almost all costs. Picking up a ball and just playing at the void decks are no longer allowed.
Kids need to go to designated tiny football “courts” to play and those are now often empty or shunned by parents with young children as the older kids play there as there is no room for them to try to kick a ball freely. We have become so sterile that we have killed off enthusiasm in so many things. Our young are all in an academic rat race.
Professional football as a career is frowned upon and unimaginable. Few Singaporeans see any hope in doing so in Singapore.
We are a society that now sees hope only in being in a top paying white-collared profession. We lament at our football scene and most will not take time out to pay and watch our boys play. But yet we will pay much to watch the other leagues on TV. We have ardent foreign club fans in Singapore but few of our own.
Football is a sport like no other. It unites a nation and nurtures the soul of the nation. It is a sport where everyone will rally behind their country regardless of race, language or religion. Football is a game that requires players to start young and to be in their prime when they are in it. Football is a team game and you need to invest in all your players to win.
It is a big mistake to think that we need to import foreign players and we will just improve our standards. We need to import great coaches to teach our clubs and coaches. We need great strength and conditioning coaches to elevate the physical prowess of our players. We need to have a great training system in place and we need to help find the opportunities to get our players out there to play in foreign leagues outside the South-East Asia region to gain even more experience in the international scene.
Most importantly, we need a Government that understands and supports the football scene, helping fulfil the dreams and aspirations of our great potential football players to bring back pride for the country instead of crushing it.
So here we are today with a golden opportunity to start getting things right with Ben Davis but yet we decide that our policies are still right despite the results showing for themselves.
We need to re-examine our conscription length and our policies for deferment. We need to reexamine how this nation is growing and has become. We need to realise that we are not just denying the opportunities of Singaporeans but that of our nation.
We need to change and grow in many more areas if Singapore is to continue to progress and not deteriorate into a beautiful looking country but yet is nothing but an empty shell.
Look at Iceland, Uruguay and Croatia. I am sure we have hidden and talented people in our midst in our population. We must give them the opportunity to step out, grow and importantly help nurture them if they want to pursue football as a career. We must not determine their dreams, aspirations or capabilities for them.
As a Government, we must help our people flourish and thrive, so that they may explore and find their own personal areas of growth & happiness as well. As they grow, our country grows.
We must change now.
Grant Ben Davis his deferment.
https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/201...-be-authentic/
Bombshell from AGO: Receipts submitted in claims for PA’s Chingay Parade might not be authentic
Published on 2018-07-18 by Correspondent
The People Association (PA) has been questioned by the Auditor-General Office (AGO) in its report yesterday (17 Jul) over 4 quotations whose contract value totaled $129,400 for the Chingay Parade 2017 event last year.
AGO’s test checked on some of the overseas purchases and payments for costumes and accessories used in the Chingay Parade 2017 event. It said that it has discovered “serious weaknesses” which could be exploited.
In particular, AGO has alluded to possible fraud been committed, “The weaknesses included not adhering to procurement principles and weak controls over payments. There were also tell-tale signs on some supporting documents submitted for reimbursement claims which indicated that they might not be authentic.”
While organizing the Chingay Parade 2017 event, PA had posted Invitations to Quote for costumes and accessories in the government procurement system, GeBIZ, and concurrently obtained manual quotations for the same items from overseas vendors not registered under GeBIZ.
PA subsequently posted “no award” announcements in GeBIZ for the Invitations to Quote even though it had awarded the contracts to overseas vendors. But AGO noted that conducting parallel manual quotation exercises was not allowed under the Government Instruction Manuals.
“As obtaining manual quotations from overseas suppliers were not subject to the more stringent controls for calling quotations via GeBIZ, PA could be exposed to the risks of manipulation of bids as well as allegations of discriminatory practice and lack of transparency,” AGO said.
Cash sales receipts used for reimbursements have tell-tale signs
In addition, AGO also found that PA had allowed an officer to make overseas purchases amounting to $142,200 and to pay for them in cash or through a remittance agent. This officer subsequently claimed reimbursements using cash sales receipts and AGO found that some of these receipts submitted by the officer had tell-tale signs, which cast doubts on their authenticity.
“Thus, there was no assurance that the amount of reimbursement claimed by the officer was the actual amount of cash that was paid by the officer to the overseas vendors,” AGO said, alluding to possible fraud.
And to add to the intrigue, although the officer was accompanied by at least one other staff during the sourcing and purchasing trips, AGO found that he had made two additional personal overseas trips at his own expense so as to make purchases, settle final payments for earlier purchases and obtain cash sales receipts.
“Allowing the officer to make purchases and payments unaccompanied by other staff exposed PA to the risks of duplicate and inflated claims,” AGO commented.
PA informed AGO that since April 2017, it had stopped all overseas direct purchases by staff and procured the costumes and accessories for Chingay Parade through GeBIZ. As overseas purchases had been made for Chingay Parade since 2007, PA has accepted AGO’s recommendation to review past purchases and payments to ascertain if there were similar weaknesses and whether they had been exploited.
However, PA did not comment on the said officer nor the authenticity of the cash sales receipts mentioned in AGO’s report. Nor did it say if the officer had been the same person making the overseas purchases since 2007.
https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/201...tem-in-mindef/
AGO: “Overpayment of grass-cutting fees” and “significant weaknesses” in Electronic Procurement System in MINDEF
Published on 2018-07-18 by The Online Citizen
In a report dated 3 July this year, the Auditor-General has revealed lapses in the spending of several ministries and government agencies, including, but not limited to, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), the Ministry of Education (MoE), and the People’s Association.
Among the lapses that were uncovered in MINDEF’s spending were “significant weaknesses in the management of rights” granted to users of the Ministry’s Electronic Procurement System (ePS), according to the report.
It was found that the “system owner and all of the five units audited” had failed to conduct “periodic reviews” on user access rights as stipulated by the “Government Instruction Manuals” and MINDEF’s internal instructions, and that MINDEF had delayed removing access rights that are not required for 41 of 219 user roles that were inspected.
The Auditor-General warned that such weaknesses have the potential to compromise the security and safety of the system, and will in turn increase “the risk of unauthorised procurement activities”, on top of putting the integrity and confidentiality of data contained in the ePS at stake.
Additionally, such weaknesses makes it “difficult to pinpoint who had performed a particular activity” and to subsequently “hold the person accountable for the activities” that had taken place, on top of opening the possibility for users of those accounts to “circumvent” certain regulations, such as the roles between “the requestor and approver of purchase”, and “the approver of purchase and the approver of the receipt of goods”.
MINDEF has noted that disciplinary actions have been taken against three of the four users, while the fourth user had left the service.
Additionally, MINDEF has also told the Auditor-General that it will “continue to educate and emphasise to users the importance of safeguarding IT accounts” and take “disciplinary actions for non-compliance”.
MINDEF will also enhance the system to prevent sharing of accounts, according to the report.
On top of the above, MINDEF has also been flagged with “overpayments of grass-cutting fees” over the period of six years, as a part of the management of a contract involving integrated buildings and infrastructure maintenance.
According to the report, the total overpayment was “approximately $0.2million […] of $0.7million.
MINDEF’s facilities management agent (FMA) and MINDEF’s contract manager, the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA), which was responsible for ensuring that the services have been carried out and to ensure that accurate reports were made before payment was made to the contractor, had failed to detect the repeated monthly overpayment.
“The repeated failures to detect the errors made by the contractor cast doubts on whether the FMA and DSTA had carried out their duties diligently,” the report said.
The ministry has informed AGO that the overpayment will be recovered from the contractor after the amount has been determined. Contractual penalties will also be imposed on the contractor for over-claiming and the FMA for failing to check the claims, according to Channel NewsAsia.
