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SINGAPORE: From October this year, town councils will be assessed on their performance under a proposed report card.
They will have about six months to familiarise themselves with the new benchmarks before the first Town Council Management Report is produced by mid-next year.
The initiative to assess town councils was started about two months back. The aim is to give residents the right information so they can better engage those managing their estates and living environments.
After two months of public consultation, it came down to an expert panel. Made up of government officials, realtors and academics, the panel will recommend what will make up the assessment report card.
But before that, they visited the Bishan-Toa Payoh estate to get a better sense of a town council's daily operations.
The estate was chosen because it presents a good example of old and new Singapore. It is a dense town with some 50,000 dwelling units and old flats dating back to the 1960s, as well as new ones still being built.
So far, three broad areas - cleanliness, estate maintenance and financial management - have been identified as assessment indicators.
The way town councils invested their funds came under the spotlight when it was revealed in parliament last year that several People's Action Party (PAP) town councils had invested a total of S$16 million in toxic financial products linked to Lehman Brothers.
The work now is how to break down the indicators so that the assessment is fair to town councils, and the results meaningful to residents.
Senior Minister of State for National Development, Grace Fu, said: "While we can be measuring statistics like number of litters, number of defects and maintenance and so on I think it's very important to relate to the residents.
"I think the linkage between town councils and the residents is important to establish. So we would encourage town councils to establish that bond and rapport and establish the expectations of residents."
Here's how estates could be measured:
- On cleanliness, it could be the amount of litter found.
- On maintenance, it could be the number of defects or how often lift breakdowns occur.
- On financial management, it could be tracking arrears in Service and Conservancy charges.
Instead of being ranked, town councils will be banded according to how well they perform against the indicators spelt out. Results of the assessment will be made public.
Associate Professor Yu Shi Ming, head of department, Real Estate, National University of Singapore, said: "The report should not be viewed as one which compares one with another. So if one town council gets a better score then they are better managed than the other one. It should be used as a gauge on how they are performing and also perhaps it's something they can learn from each town council."
A team from the Housing and Development Board will be appointed to conduct the assessment.
There are 16 town councils across Singapore. Together they manage some 900,000 flats. 14 are run by the ruling PAP and two by the opposition - the Workers' Party in Hougang and the Singapore People's Party in Potong Pasir.
The assessment would apply to both PAP and opposition wards. - CNA/vm
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