Bishan-Toa Payoh TC only town council not in top banding in latest corporate governance report

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of National Development (MND) published the town council management report for fiscal year 2023, which showed there was only one town council out of 17 — the Bishan-Toa Payoh TC — that received an “amber” banding for corporate governance.

All other town councils were banded “green”.

The Town Council Management Report (TCMR) has two parts. The first is an operational part that deals with Estate Cleanliness, Estate Maintenance, Lift Performance, and Service & Conservancy Charges (S&CC) Arrears Management indicators mid-year. This was published on June 27.

The second is a report on Corporate Governance (CG), released at year’s end.

MND has finished its review of the audited financial statements and auditors’ reports of the town councils. It has also checked their declarations of compliance with the Town Councils Act and Rules.

Ang Mo Kio TC, Marine Parade TC, and Marsiling-Yew Tee TC each had one low-severity observation of non-compliance with the Town Councils Act involving cases of administrative oversight.

All of these have since been rectified, MND added. With the three TCs scoring under one point for Corporate Governance, they placed within the “Green” band.

According to the Corporate Governance banding table, town councils that receive less than one point are in the Green band, those that score between one and under two points are in the amber band, and those that score two points and over are in the Red band.

“Points are assigned based on the severity of the observations,” noted MND. “For instance, an observation which constitutes an offence under the Town Councils Act will be considered high severity while a first-time administrative oversight that has been rectified will be considered low severity.”

Bishan-Toa Payoh TC had three instances of the same type of non-compliance with the Town Councils Act. These were also cases of administrative oversight that have already been corrected.

However, MND said that since there were multiple instances of the same type of non-compliance, this was considered to be a medium-severity observation.

Bishan-Toa Payoh TC scored one point for corporate governance, which is why it received an “Amber” band.

According to a Dec 11 CNA report, Bishan-Toa Payoh TC has carried out an internal review to address the issues.

MND has presented the audited financial statements for last year to Parliament. These will be published on the town council’s websites.

The FY2023 TCMR Governance Report and TCs’ CG declarations can be found here. /TISG

Read related: MND releases new governance code for town councils, effective April 2020