PM Lee sets up committee to review ministerial pay

Here's an interesting bit of trivia - the British Monarchy's accounts are audited and posted on the official British Monarchy site. It accounts for the all the money that the royal family receives from the government and how that money is spent (the money is actually used to cover the cost of the royals performing their official duties). The royals receive the funding because in exchange, they surrender to the government the revenue that they earn from their personal estates.

Over the years, their funding has been reduced from 87.2 million pounds in 1991-92 to just 38.2 million in 2009-10. According to calculations, the Queen now costs the British taxpayer just 62 pence (S$1.24) per person. Their funding was cut down in response to the country's poor economy.

Financial reports on how the money is spent every year are published annually on the British Monarchy site - now that's what you call transparency!

For those who are interested: http://www.royal.gov.uk/TheRoyalHousehold/Royalfinances/AnnualFinancialReports/Annualfinancialreports.aspx

That's not all. The British government also publishes reports through the Prime Minister's office under the very appropriate title "How Your Money Is Spent": http://transparency.number10.gov.uk/

Even the White House publishes Annual Reports on its web site and the public can also request personnel public financial disclosure reports.

If there are no similar reports offered by the Singapore government, then maybe it's time that such reports are done annually and made available to our public too. Why not? Won't it be nice to know if taxpayers are the only source of our ministers' and MPs' salaries or if they get their income from other sources too? Wouldn't it also be nice to know how much each of them is costing us a year?

Return me my CPF!!!!

Stop telling me how to spend my own hard earn money at age 60.

Stop telling us its for our own good just because a minute group of sexually active old man spend it on girls in batam.

You guys earn Millions of dollars to the extend of not having the need to use your CPF after 60. BUT WE DO NEED OUR CPF!

Stop making retirees look like a beggar having to take our hard earn money a few hundred dollars a month from the government.

RETURN US OUR CPF!

quote from Wikipaedia " However, soon after his election to the presidency in 1993, Ong was tangled in a dispute over the access of information regarding Singapore's financial reserves. The government said it would take 56 man-years to produce a dollar-and-cents value of the immovable assets. Ong discussed this with the accountant general and the auditor general and eventually conceded that the government only had to declare all of its properties, a list which took a few months to produce. Even then, the list was not complete; it took the government a total of three years to produce the information that Ong requested.[6]

In an interview with Asiaweek six months after stepping down from presidency,[7] Ong indicated that he had asked for this audit based on the principle that as an elected president, he was bound to protect the national reserves, and the only way of doing so would be to know what reserves (both liquid cash and assets) the government owned.

In the last year of his presidency (1998) Ong found out through the newspapers that the government aimed to submit a bill to Parliament to sell the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) to The Development Bank of Singapore. The POSB was, at that time, a government statutory board whose reserves were under the president's protection, this move was procedurally inappropriate and did not regard Ong's significance as the guardian of the reserves; he had to call and inform the government of this oversight. In spite of this, the sale proceeded and the Development Bank Of Singapore owns POSBank and its name to this present day.[7]

Ong received an Honorary Appointment of The Order of St Michael and St George from Queen Elizabeth II in 1998.[8]

Ong decided not to run for a second term as president in 1999 partially due to health reasons.

[edit] DeathOng's wife, Ling Siew May, died in August 1999 after a cancer relapse. Ong died later on February 8, 2002, at the age of 66, from lymphoma in his home at about 8:14 pm SST after he had been discharged from hospital a few days earlier.

Among the five former presidents who have died, Ong is the first president who did not receive a state funeral. He received a state-assisted funeral instead
unquote"

PM Lee.
ANOTHER URGENT COMISSION with participation of law enforcers is REQUIRED !!!
On the FOREIGN MESS created by DPM Tharman & ex-MOM Gan that NEED GOVT PRIORITY ATTENTION !!
Take note Singapore NEVER raise the foreign issue 15 years ago and earlier .
1. Govt SET ZERO Quota + ZERO level for ALL employment pass (S, P1, P2)
2. CREATED UNFAIR COMPETITION AGAINST SINGAPOREANS blue & white collars !!
3. HAVE CREATED a POTENTIAL CASE of HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE against SINGAPORE !!
Why ????

A. Rampant corruption in several companies management & employees (HR + direct supervisors who sometimes are even foreigner themselves) WHO are demanding the practice of introductory fees from foreign workers !!!
B. Forcing foreigner to work at 60 hrs/week in exchange for job security vs SINGAPORE LAW of 44 hours/week !!!!
Hence will NEVER employ a SINGAPOREAN at $2,500 'cos the foreigner is forced do 1.4 person job at $2,500 !!!
C, System you setup ALLOWS the COMPANIES to use NO QUOTA at employment pass at S to BRING in WORKERS who ARE MEANT for Work Permit...........hence such companies escaping the levy for work permit ( salary < $1,800)  Hence OVER INFLUX + UNFAIR COMPETITION
eg Bring in China foreigner for as bartender under employement pass S (salary > $1,800) which HAS NO QUOTA BUT actual situation is :-
i. China foreigner has to pay $12,000 to get the job as bartender in Singapore !!!
ii. Actual salary is below $1,800 !!!........that means should be using WORK PERMIT instead of employment S pass . Hence allowing the company to avoid paying levy for work permit and also to BY PASS the QUOTA for work permit !!!........suspect no cpf too !!!
iii. Force to work 60 hrs/week vs Singapore law of 44 hrs/week !!!
In order for job security + to pay the $12,000 (known in other parts of Asia as introductory fees), they bite their TONGUE BUT VERY UNHAPPY !!!
SUGGEST AN URGENT COMMISSION + CPID to investigate & ENPACE + ENFORCE LAWS with jail term penalty against any company management + HR management + Fin management who partake directly or indirectly !!! Check out MOM + Immigration +Work permit depts in detail !!!

Btw, appointing Gerald Ee by the PM....into the Review Committee doesnt sound so right !!

An accountant is always an accountant who only look at Dollar and Cent...

Why not the WP,,,,,Corporate Lawyer Mao...is being appointed too...?

Mr PM, let get these fundemental RIGHT from the start

1/ At current salaries, Spore is in the Guiness World Records of Top 10 if not 20, 30 world politician salaries. Please compare to the world, not just dollars but structure! No body hold a multi-million dollar politican saleries for decades! Just stop playing with tricks!

2/ If "these people" need such a level of pay to love and protect the Spore interests, doesn't matter how honesty, "clean", talented, etc, they are. "These people" are not the right people to serve!

3/ Stop building all the hidden salaries into other indirect salareis payable!

4/ Finally, what ever recommendation coming out from "YOUR" committe. The salaries need to match the world in comparison! Not PAP standards!

Dear Singaporeans

This review committtee is only a white elephant for show . The committe should include workers party and the other opposition parties if the PAP wants to be sincere. Gerald Ee is NOT an independent party .

Don't try to deceive the people by putting up a show .

Dear Mr PM,
pay the MPs the average salary a first world MP gets and if the are corrupted,sack them charge them in court. Paying the MP so much is the same as bribing them but in legal way. As for FTs make them buy private property public housing is meant for us SINGAPOREAN. we live, work, have family and die here in Singapore. I have many friends who came to work and after earning enough they go back to their homeland a rich person with bungalows, cars, lands, boats etc...we Singaporean only have all the loans to bring to our grave....soooooo sad.

Yes, Gerard Ee cannot be trusted. He is the one who said bus fare increase is fair...

Do this Review Committee has a MP from the Worker's Party?

To show how scandalous are our ministers’ salaries here are a few comparisons:

Any minister with a S$3.8 million salary plus an 8 month bonus gets to take home S$6.3 million.

1 This is $17,260 a day, every day for one year.

2 This is more than the basic salaries of the American President’s ENTIRE Cabinet.

2 This is 115 times more than Singapore’s per capita GDP of about S$55,000.

4 This is 656 times more than a cleaner’s salary of $800 per month.

3 This is enough to pay the COMBINED salaries of the presidents of the USA, China, Russia, India, Brazil, The Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, France, and Cuba who governs nearly half the world’s population.

CCB PAP !

Yes, a lot of mess have been created by our PAP that need to be cleared to make way for a better Singapore.

One of which iis education placement for our children. The government should give bigger priority to its citizens to gain entry to schools, polytechnics and universities. Stop the so called ' donations' that schools accept from parents especially foreigners to admit their child to schools in Singapore. There are many foreign students in our government schools, polytechnics and universities who cannot speak or read proper English and are easily accepted. Whereas our Singaporean students have to sacrifice for them and be denied a place. Also reduced somewhat the GPA to enable more of our Singaporean students a chance to enter the universities. And increase the entry requirements for foreign students. Pls give our children hope. They are not stupid, they learn in their own way and time. Another disheartening issue is the giving of study grant by our government to foreigh students who study here. This has to stop or be reduced for the foreign students . So much help given to them at the expense of our students.

The foreigners here are becoming better off than us Singaporean. I worry when it comes to my children's tertiary education how can I afford private universities or overseas studies when places here are taken by foreign students. On that basis I also wonder why my son should sacrifice 2 years of national service and yet not get into a uni in Spore because they need the seat to be given to a foreign student.

Pls Mr Government don't make our lives so complicated. The ministers are rich and can afford expensive education for their children but we Singaporeans are becoming poorer with money hard to come by including receipt of our CPFmoney. It seems to be the Govt money rather than our money.The foreigner workers can collect their CPF when they leave Spore and enjoy the high S$ currency valuation back home and live liife comfortably

On top of that we cant even invest in property outside Spore to earn that extra income. I wonder how is the mechanism in tracking that the 'new citizens' or PR in Spore do not own any property outside Spore?? Can it theoretically be as easy as said.

The rich ministers have to understand what we are going through, the sacrifices we are forced to make, Pls do not make us victims anymore.

A few months back, my sister overhead a conversation by 2 Indian foreign workers in Hindi, laughing out loud at how stupid our government is because they intend to sell their 5 room HDB flat and move back to India. I dont blame them because our Govt gives citizenship and PR so very easily unlike other countries.

With the crowded mrt and buses, I feel so sorry for our elderlies. and working parents who have to shuttle their young ones to and from work. Travelling is no longer pleasant and gracious for them. Our transport service is no longer user friendly to the needies.

I just wonder what has happen to the Spore that i had known. Life was so much easier than. I hope we do not become another Hong Kong.

I strongly believed that a good government should be formed by a group of person that had the passion to serve its nation and its people as its mission, If a person joined the government whose intention is to be paid the top salary than he do not have the heart to really and truthly serve because he is chasing for his pension rather than passion.
Furthermore who can guarantee that top salary earner is sure to be corrupt free, it is still based on the moral value and its principles that the person had and follow, a greedy person will never feel that he had enough and alway want for more even when he already had abundance.
Of course we want all our ministers to be paid well cause they really had to put in a lot of effort for the country to continue to properous, however what is the benchmark to use?
Since in the world there is survey to show that which country rank the best in term of corruption free, which is rank the no 1 in economy , no 1 in productivities and development. Use these no 1 as a guideline to reimburse our minister, isnt it fairer this way? For if they can perform with that amount of salary why cant our minister?
The many millions that are saved can be channel into more useful purposes for the country and its people, isnt it more meaningful to give more than you received?

It is shameless to give yourselves 8mths bonus while your people generally gets 1 month. Be realistic Mr. PM, who gets that kind of bonus other than yourselves? You earn $4m to govern an island of 5m while Obama gets a quarter and please don't bring in the issue of writing books, lectures, speaking engagements.... that's a personal thing and non-governmental.

Thanks goodness 40% voted opposition, me included, so I am proud of myself, otherwise this will never happen in a million year of PAP rule.

A review committee make up of top earners is pretty useless because they will use their standards as gauge. A review committee should consist of a variety of people from different income level from both end of the spectrum - that way input about power spending of each category can be taken on board, then the ministers will understand people struggle to stretch their dollar to meet inflation.

Then only cost of essentials will be brought down to help median income meet their ends.

They shall get the same pay as china government. - 60 rmp per month.

why

they did not manage a country as big as china.

Thanks to the opp parties, otherwise "review" will never happen in a million year of PAP rule.

The S'pore Government is good at outsourcing, so reviewing of their salaries should therefore be conducted by neutral and honourable entities instead of their lackeys. The report should be then be publised for transparency, their salaries are afterall Singaporean hardearned monies.
Don't think Singaporean would mind paying a little for the enormous savings and benefits on the way.
After the salary issue, the others like CPF, Housing, FT, GST, ERPs, etc should follow ASAP.

PM Lee: U are on right step, now your credibility is improving. Say whatever you want about balance, the fact is the ministers are paid beyond reason. You can use your best logic to defend, take note whatever you say it no longer believe by our folk on the street.

For transparency, we strongly encourage you to have representatives from Opposition, private sector etc. If you have PAP only committee members, we will take it as a rubber stamp. What is Gerald Ee"s credentials and credibility rating.

I am a head hunter, I have never seen any CEOs paid the moneys you and the ministers get. If your Ministers think they deserve the current salary they get, then you got the wrong men on your team. Public servants should be paid, but not several quatum above reality and reason. If u PM Lee, gets more than US President Obama, have it ever occured to you that Singapore is the butt of all humor and joke in the international scene. I know this, because I travelled internationally, and have heard foreigners saying this. Dont know where put my face.

So let see your scorecard todate:
1-MM and SM stepped down.
2-WKS and MBT sacked
3-Cabinet size reduced
4- Ministerial committe set up to review pay

Keep going! We will push you until you become successful.

I am not sure Mr Gerald Ee is "independent". There is no point appointing a committee for rubber stamping purposes as Singaporeans will not be convinced of its credibility or impartiality.
Maybe Workers Party should be invited to send a person to sit on the committee ??