Nat’l Development Ministry creates checklist to assess town councils

By Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia Posted: 23 September 2009 1614 2009 1614 hrs

SINGAPORE: After months of public consultation, the government has come up with a checklist to grade the performance of Singapore's 16 town councils. The six items on the list cover four areas - cleanliness, estate maintenance, lift maintenance and financial management. How clean is your housing estate and how often do lifts break down? These are some of the issues that affect residents on a daily basis and they will be part of a report card on town councils. Councils will also be graded on how effectively they collect service and conservancy charges from residents. Assessments will be jointly carried out by the Housing Development Board and the town councils from October 1. The estates will not be ranked, but they will be graded against a common scale, from levels one to five. Authorities said they want to be objective, but there are concerns on how grading will be carried out. Inspectors will not be counting every single piece of litter, stain or graffiti in an estate. Instead, what they will do is measure the average number of what they call "cleanliness defects" in an area. Town councils hope the report, when it's out in the middle of next year, will give residents a better sense of ownership over their estate. Denise Phua, chairman, Jalan Besar Town Council, said: "This whole system is meant to be a platform for both the town councils and the residents to engage more, to communicate, to be able to identify where the gaps are and determine the areas by which the town can be improved." But some residents don't agree. One of them said: "I will not read the report. I think it's not relevant to us residents. I think it's more useful for the town councils." "If there's this comparison, at least you know how efficient one town council is relative to another town council. Also then you'll know whether the money you pay every month, whether it's money well spent or not," said another resident. The use of sinking funds will not be covered in the initial report, but the National Development Ministry said such information is already available in each council's financial statements. But it is not ruling out including them in the future. - CNA/vm