WP’s Yee Jenn Jong: Town Council work has always been political, not at all surprised that there is zero bid to manage Sengkang TC

Following the announcement that Sengkang Town Council was to manage the town directly after no bids were received in agent tender, Yee Jenn Jong expressed that he was not at all surprised.

The former Non-constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP) said that the nature of Town Council work has always been political, and added that it was designed that way when the People’s Action Party (PAP) first conceived it.

“As a matter of prudence, SKTC called a tender for (managing agent) services for Buangkok, Compassvale and Rivervale divisions in April, well in advance of the expiry date,” said the town council.

However, no bids were received at the close of the tender on Apr 29.

In his post on Wednesday (May 18), Mr Yee said: “I had always believed that eventually, the town council had to be self managed whether we like it or not. During one of my GE2015 rally speeches, I had said if we win Marine Parade GRC, it will be self managed”. 

He added that the situation had been designed to be such “given the heavily lopsided nature of Singapore politics”. 

The tight labour market is why existing managing agent EM Services did not put in a bid to manage Sengkang Town Council (SKTC) after its contract ends next January, the company’s chief executive officer said on Thursday (May 19), according to CNA article.

EM Services’ CEO Tony Khoo said: “As you are aware, SKTC called for tender to manage the entire SKTC.

“EM is managing only a part of SKTC now … managing township requires many people. As labour market is very tight these days, it is not easy to find the right people who have the relevant skill sets. As such, we have decided to give it a miss for this tender.” /TISG