Mr Leong Mun Wai presented the reasons for his objections to taxpayers’ monies being used to support SPH Media Trust and to compensate Sports Hub Pte Ltd (SHPL) in an Adjournment Motion in Parliament on Monday (Oct 3).
However, in response to the Progress Singapore Party Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Indranee Rajah said that his allegations about the management of public funds were “bogus” and were “completely without basis”.
SPH Media Trust will be provided with up to S$900 million in government funding over the next five years, in the wake of the company’s media operations being hived off in 2021 to form a not-for-profit entity.
As for Sports Hub, after the public-private partnership (PPP) was terminated, around S$1.5 billion would be paid to SHPL.
Mr Leong said on Oct 4, “This is a total of S$2.4 billion of taxpayer’s money,” adding that Government “owes Singaporeans a more detailed explanation”.
“The Government must respond in full to my queries, or Singaporeans can take it that taxpayer’s money has been wasted.”
In reply, Ms Rajah pointed out that the Government has responded “in full many times” to these issues.
“Mr Leong’s entire motion is an attempt to portray the Government as profligate and heedless of our expenses. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In persisting with these insinuations, Mr Leong is doing a disservice to Singapore, to our Government and to our public servants, charged with the sacred responsibility of looking after the public purse,” she added.
Furthermore, “The entire transaction is financially neutral because we are not paying SHPL more than what we would otherwise have committed to under the PPP model.”
“Unfortunately, Mr Leong has chosen to ignore these detailed explanations, and instead makes a completely baseless and false claim that the termination sum can be lower.”
On Tuesday (Oct 4), Mr Leong wrote in a Facebook post that he is “was disappointed that Minister Indranee Rajah failed to directly answer the new questions that I raised, and instead chose to cast aspersions on me for asking these questions.”
Meanwhile, Ms Rajah wrote, also in a Facebook post, that “The government and our public servants are committed to upholding high standards of governance and accountability for the use of public resources. This is made possible by having sound and prudent fiscal policies, as well as a robust system of checks and balances.” /TISG