How you know when some Big Shot is coming.

My block was being invaded by throng of painter over the weekend.

I meant really invaded!

There were like at least 8-10 painters touching up the entire ground floor for the past 2 days and gosh they even changed all the lights at the lift lobbies.

Guess I will be expecting the Minister to do his walk about really soon.

I was having trouble getting my town council sending his sweeper down for the 2 years but suddenly everything is sparkling clean when election is near.

Think we should have Election every year.

A Strong Reminder

A couple of day ago I received this 31 pages high quality super colorful brochure from my town council.

Basically it’s all self praising messages inside. A sort of report cards reminding people in the GRC what the incumbent had done for you over the last 5 years. Naming all the new Malls, parks upgrading, roads, etc etc and many more upcoming projects.

Inside there are many pictures featuring in lots of activities surrounded by lots of people and I swore I never seen so many happy faces in my life.

There are also many comments from the residents and needless to say they are all happy.

I wonder where they find these people when they wanted comments. Probably they are RC members or relative of RC members I guess.

Over the years I had several complaints regarding the cleanliness of my estates and to date the situation still has not improved. Also I have witness many close shaves involving cyclist on walkways with pedestrians. It is illegal but somehow I have never seen a law enforcer in my entire stay in Pasir Ris.

I can’t help to wonder how much money used to publish this propaganda brochure and they should use the money to hire more cleaners instead. I note they have about $116 million in their sinking fund base on their 09/10 annual reports. Gosh that’s lots of fat if you ask me.

So did they did a good job in the last 5 years? Everyone will have their own views and I don’t believe a last minute effort of an expensive colorful brochure will change a person mind.

I can sense a tingle of fear from the incumbent this time.

Youth Olympic Games

Suddenly I notice Giant Billboards promoting the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) about 10m wide x 6 m tall start to spring up at various locations in Singapore.

I personally saw a couple in Tampines and Pasir Ris.

It has a big picture of the 2 clowns....er… no mascot with message like “Resident of Pasir Ris support the Youth Olympic Games”

I got a couple of questions

Firstly nobody asked me whether I support the YOG or not. So how can the town council say for everyone in the constituency that we support the YOG.

To be more accurate the billboard should read “ Pasir Ris Town Council Support the YOG” or “ Singapore Government support the YOG”.

Second question I got in mind is how much does this colorful billboards cost and who is paying for them? The various Town Concils, (Since they got a good record for collecting conservancy fee or the Ministry of Youth and community development?

Anyway I think it is a pathetic way of them trying to generate some interest in the YOG.

Hitting below the belt

Town councils fare generally well in first management report

10 June 2010 1157 hrs (SST)

Town councils have received their first-ever report card from the Ministry of National Development.

They were assessed in four areas in the inaugural Town Council Management Report (TCMR): estate cleanliness, estate maintenance, lift performance and management of service and conservancy charges arrears.

Most of them fared well in the assessment which took place from last October to this March.

All 16 town councils scored at least a level 2 for cleanliness on a scale of 1 to 5 with one being the best and 5 being the worst.

Four town councils - Tanjong Pagar, Marine Parade, Bishan-Toa Payoh and Ang Mo Kio-Yio Chu Kang - secured the highest level of 1.

The best performer was Tanjong Pagar Town Council. It achieved top ratings for all except estate maintenance.

Indranee Rajah, vice-chairman of Tanjong Pagar Town Council, said: "(First), the staff worked really, really hard and two, input from residents. Our Residents' Committees as well as the residents have been quite diligent in bringing things to the attention of the town council which allows for fairly quick response. "

What the Tanjong Pagar Town Council did was, their officers, especially the property officers, general manager and the staff, they put in a lot of effort on the ground, in terms of identifying the things that needed to be improved, and taking concrete measures to try and implement them.

In the other areas of assessment, most town councils also achieved at least a level 3.

However, town councils in opposition-held estates didn't fare as well.

Potong Pasir for instance scored a level 5 in several areas of assessment including maintenance and arrears management.

Hougang estate also scored 5 for arrears management.

No other estate scored a five in any area of assessment. But residents in Potong Pasir appear to take the poor assessment in their stride.

"It's okay because at least they clean it every day. And I see the person cleaning the lift and sweeping the corridors," said one resident.

"I see a big improvement from previous years, such as the roadside, the gardens, the walkways," said another.

Putting things in context, however, the National Development Ministry says the TCMR should not be used as a basis for comparison between towns. That's because each town differs in terms of its residents' profile and property profile. Hence, it says a more appropriate use of the result is for monitoring the performance of town councils over time.

Ms Indranee Rajah said: "What the assessment process does is that it makes the town councils think about their KPIs (key performance indicators) - these are the things we have to achieve. It also helps the residents to focus on what they want and it helps the town councils to know that these are the things the residents want.

So I guess it's helpful, because it gives you something to shoot for, and you can works towards improving it. Besides the town councils, the job of looking after an estate must be shared.

"Residents must also play their part in keeping the estate clean, because it's good for us," said a resident.

When letter start to appear in the Straights Times Forum this week regarding Potong Pasir cleaniness I knew something fishy is about to happen.

And true enough, yesterday PAP...... opps no the Ministry of National Development reported the performance of all the town councils.

And as expected if you read this article there is the mention of Tanjong Pagar, Ang Mo Kio, Bishan, Ang Mo Kio (Hmmm .... seem to remind me of some inportant people) did exceptionally well and Potong Pasir and Hougang are lousy.

This is a hit below the belt in boxing term.

Come on, we know the election is coming and I can believe the ruling party resort to such childish tactic.

Note: I thing one of the criteria of scoring will is “Least outstanding conservancy fee , Most conservancy fee being collected” Er… wait a minute doesn’t that meant it is bad for us if the town council collect hell lots of money from us?

Lame Reason

Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council says half of S$4m investment not written off
23 November 2008

SINGAPORE: Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council said while it is looking at safer options for investing, it will also take into account what residents prefer.

The town council had invested S$4 million in financial products linked to the now bankrupt US investment bank, Lehman Brothers. It said around half of the amount has not been written off.

Speaking on the sidelines of a community event on Sunday, Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council chairman, Ahmad Magad, said the council has been communicating with some residents who have asked about the investments. And going forward, it will listen to what residents prefer.

Dr Ahmad said: "If they feel that the way forward is best for us to just park our funds in fixed deposits – that's what we'll do. But bear in mind that FDs will only give you minimal returns. At times, it doesn't even cover inflation."

He added that banks have informed the town council that as of end of October, its S$4 million investment still has a residual value of S$2.1 million. But he said he is not sure if the S$2.1 million can be recovered.

"There is still residual value in our minibond investments. As of October 31, our banks have written to us indicating that the S$4 million that we have invested still has a residual value of S$2.1 million. So it's not like it's been completely written off," said Dr Ahmad.

Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean, who is also one of the MPs for Pasir Ris-Punggol, said the town council had invested in the long-term interests of residents.

"It's quite unfortunate that this investment has turned bad, but we hope that over the long term, we'll still be able to get a good return so that the sinking funds that we have will be able to do all the long-term maintenance that is necessary for the residents and we're quite confident of that," said Mr Teo.

Pasir Ris-Punggol is one of eight town councils which had invested a total of S$16 million in troubled structured products.

Bunch of bullshit again!

So now they want to listen to what resident prefer? I am waiting. Why they don't listen to us in the first place by reducing the conservative fees.

Less money = No money to invest = No loss.

I prefer they DON'T COLLECT SO MUCH MONEY IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Teo Chee Hean, please tell us what "long term interest" you have for us.