Town councils performed well overall, Tampines Town Council marked down on maintenance, governance: MND

• The Town Council Management Report assessed town councils across five indicators
• MND said the results for FY2019 are comparable with those of previous years
• Improvements were seen in the area of estate cleanliness

SINGAPORE — All 16 town councils appraised for their estate management before the General Election (GE) last year performed well, although Tampines Town Council was flagged for shortcomings in two areas: Estate maintenance and corporate governance.

Two other town councils were marked down in one area each: Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) over estate maintenance and Chua Chu Kang Town Council over the management of arrears for collectible charges.

The conclusions were contained in the latest Town Council Management Report released on Monday (March 15) by the Ministry of National Development (MND).

Tampines Town Council was found to have between four and fewer than eight counts of maintenance observations for each housing block and on one occasion, did not comply with the town councils financial rules, MND said.

“The town council had under-transferred the amount due to the sinking and lift replacement funds for one quarter due to a computation error. The town council had discovered the error and rectified the shortfall in the next quarterly transfer.” 

MND added that the town councils submitted clean accounts for the 2019 financial year (FY) from April 2019 to March 2020.

The report, based on the pre-GE town council managements, assessed town councils across five indicators: Estate cleanliness, estate maintenance, lift performance, management of arrears in service and conservancy charges, and corporate governance.

They were scored using three colour bands — green, amber or red.

MND said that the results for FY2019 are comparable with those of previous years, with improvements observed in the area of estate cleanliness, where all town councils scored green.

The report found that:

• All town councils scored green on estate cleanliness

• All town councils scored green on lift performance, which indicated that there were fewer than two breakdowns a month for every 10 lifts they managed. The failure rate for the lifts’ automatic rescue device — which brings the lift car to the nearest lift landing during a power failure — was zero

• Fourteen town councils scored green on estate maintenance while two scored amber

• Fifteen town councils scored green in service and conservancy charges arrears management while one scored amber

• Fifteen town councils scored green in corporate governance, while one scored amber

AHTC was the other town council to score amber for estate maintenance because it had been found to have between four and fewer than eight counts of maintenance observations for each block.

The town council on Monday said that the results showed a steady improvement in its year-on-year performance, which could only be achieved through the co-operation and support of all stakeholders, including staff members, residents and town councillors.

“AHTC will continue to work hard, especially in matters pertaining to estate maintenance. We note that among other issues, the cluttering of common areas, particularly along the common corridors, remains a pertinent issue not just unique to our constituencies,” it added.

AHTC also expressed its commitment to educate and work with residents and agencies such as the Singapore Civil Defence Force and the Housing and Development Board to minimise such risks.

Chua Chu Kang Town Council scored amber in management of arrears in service and conservancy charges because between 40 and 50 per cent of the monthly collectible arrears for the town were found to have been overdue.

This is despite fewer than four in 100 households in the town owing arrears for three months or more, which would have put it in the green band if the overall collectible arrears had not been so high.

MND said that the release of the results for FY2019 was delayed due to the two-month extension granted to town councils to submit their audited financial statements in light of the circuit breaker period in April and May last year that was the country's partial lockdown for the pandemic.

The ministry added that it will also suspend the assessment for FY2020 and will not be publishing a report for the period of April 2020 to March 2021.

"This is in view of the disruption faced by the town councils during the circuit breaker period as well as the changes to the town councils following GE2020 in July last year," it said.

From FY2021, MND will publish the Town Council Management Report in two documents — one covering five operational indicators to be published in May or June each year, and one covering the corporate governance indicator to be published in November or December each year.

They will be based on the new town areas after GE2020, covering 17 town councils for the period of April 2021 to March 2022.