Goh Meng Seng: Sometimes civil servants do not use their common sense or brain

The secretary-general of the People’s Power Party (PPP), Goh Meng Seng, spoke out on social media about the poor signage and hotline given by the Public Utilities Board (PUB). After spotting teenagers fishing at a reservoir, Mr Goh expressed the hassle he had to go through to be put in touch with the relevant persons.

In a Facebook post on Monday, November 12, Mr Goh said, “Sometimes civil servants do not use their common sense nor brain when they set up signage”.

He then continued, “When I was at a reservoir and found someone fishing, I wanted to call the park ranger to alert them”.

“However, the signage that puts up the no fishing sign, gave the GENERAL PUB HOTLINE which linked me to a voice machine to select billing and other irrelevant choices. None of the selections relates to report to park rangers with regards to inappropriate activities at the reservoirs”, he added.

Mr Goh’s question to the authorities was, “Why would they put up a phone number that is totally irrelevant to the signage?”

However, an hour after his first post, Mr Goh shared an update:

In it, he wrote, “After the unpleasant encounter with bad signage put up, we had a pleasant surprise from the park ranger who called us back after settling the illegal fishing issue at the reservoir.

Mr Goh also added that after the park ranger visited the area, he gave the teenagers fishing a lecture.

“But at the same time he told us that in all other reservoirs in Singapore, except the one we went this morning, there are “designated sites” which allow people to do fishing”, Mr Goh continued.

He concluded his post saying, “This is one fine example of good civil servants who know their jobs well, giving relevant information pertaining to issues not directly related their scope of duties but good relevant information to the public”.

________________________________________________________________________

obbana@theindependent.sg