Foreign vehicles with unpaid toll charges and fees will soon be banned from entering or leaving Singapore.

Amendments to the Road Traffic Act were introduced in Parliament last week and will be debated by Members of Parliament next month.

The move to bar such vehicles comes after the Land Transport Authority (LTA) was rapped by the Auditor-General last year for under-collecting up to $14 million in charges.

Several other government agencies have also made changes to address their lapses in governance and procurement, said a report released by Parliament yesterday.

These lapses were first flagged by the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) in its annual audit of public agencies for Financial Year (FY) 2015/16.

In its report yesterday, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a parliamentary watchdog on public funds, outlined how it had scrutinised irregularities and asked ministries how they had corrected them.

The PAC’s eight members called on the agencies to address the underlying problems that led to the lapses.

Read also: Johor chief minister urges Malaysians to use public transport to go to Singapore 

It urged them not to go with piecemeal fixes that might result only in more red tape and higher costs, but to find holistic solutions that are effective and efficient.

For example, ministries can redesign an entire system or make better use of technology to address the fundamental causes of the lapses.

“Heads of agencies should set the tone at the top to ensure adherence to processes and controls as part of good governance,” the report said.

The PAC noted four areas of concern: Inadequate financial controls, a proper governance framework not being in place, lack of oversight of administration of schemes, and lapses in management of contracts.

On the under-collected tolls, the Transport Ministry explained that LTA’s collection system at the Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints was not linked to the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority, thus letting motorists clear immigration without paying correct fees.

Read also: Malaysia Transport Minister: S’pore must understand our stand

The agencies will begin a trial linking their collection systems by FY 2016/17, and fully implement it in the following year.

Other lapses included the high fee paid to consultants for the Victoria Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall bin centre.

The Ministry of Community, Culture and Youth (MCCY) told the PAC it had reiterated that evaluations of whether quoted fees were reasonable should be included in approval documents.

The PAC also followed up on lapses uncovered in the AGO report for FY2014/15, such as related-party transactions in grassroots bodies.

MCCY told the PAC it had put in place measures to manage conflicts of interest.

Since January 2016, grassroots leaders have also been reminded at the start of every meeting to declare conflicts of interest and leave the meeting when these arose.

Read also: Singapore matches Malaysia’s road charge of $6.40 for all foreign-registered cars

charyong@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Jan 19, 2017.
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Patients may find more comprehensive healthcare services anchored closer to their homes after the public sector transitions into a new three-cluster system.

The beefed-up healthcare group in their neighbourhood will also bring health promotion, disease prevention and rehabilitative care within their reach.

Singapore’s public healthcare sector will be reorganised into three clusters, down from the current six.

Facilities across the country, including general hospitals and polyclinics, will be grouped based on their locations, so that each cluster oversees a specific area of the island.

Singapore Health Services (SingHealth) will merge with Eastern Health Alliance and take charge of services in eastern Singapore, including Changi General Hospital.

The National Healthcare Group (NHG), which will take Alexandra Health System under its wing, will cover the central region.

National University Health System (NUHS), to be paired with Jurong Health Services, will helm the west.

The new clusters, to be known as SingHealth, NHG and NUHS, will cover about 1.1 million to 1.5 million Singapore residents in each region.

Several polyclinics will be transferred across the groups, so that every cluster has primary care services.

After the changes, the different types of public healthcare facilities near one’s home are more likely to come under the same management.

Healthcare adviser Jean-Luc Butel said that the mergers should make it easier to strategise and implement decisions across the various institutions.

“You can now make decisions over broader areas of the system,” said Mr Butel, who is president of consultancy firm K8 Global.

“For example, the application of best practices across the system should go more easily.”

Staff members will also be able to respond more quickly and decisively, such as when implementing new programmes for patients.

The transition is expected to be completed by early next year.

In outlining their visions, the leaders of the new clusters said that one key focus is on delivering integrated care for patients.

Professor John Wong, who will lead the merged NUHS as its group chief executive, said the reorganisation allows long-standing partners in the west to come together to provide “seamless care from prevention to home care”.

The six regional health systems each have their own strengths.

Some have formed strong primary care networks, while others are stronger in education or research.

The new entities can tap the combined strengths of the original clusters, said MOH.

Professor Ivy Ng, group chief executive of SingHealth, said: “Changi General Hospital’s leadership in disciplines like geriatrics, sports medicine, emergency medicine and others will complement SingHealth’s range of clinical services.”

Similarly, NHG group chief executive Philip Choo said there will be more concerted efforts in wellness and preventive care.

Some hospitals also have existing tie-ups with service providers, such as voluntary welfare organisations, to run programmes for patients.

Such services could be scaled up under the expanded cluster, so residents in a wider area can tap them.

Dr Lee Chien Earn, who heads the Eastern Health Alliance, noted that the cluster has worked on disease prevention and early detection and treatment to help keep people in the community healthy.

A scheme, called Eastern Community Health Outreach, helps residents detect and manage chronic diseases early.

It is currently available in neighbourhoods only in the east, such as Tampines Central and Bedok.

With the merger, Dr Lee said that such successful programmes could be expanded “at pace and scale as part of a larger health cluster”.

chpoon@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Jan 19, 2017.
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He came to Singapore to commit crime and attempted to illegally withdraw about $2,000 in cash from ATMs here using cloned cards.

Bulgarian Pavlov Nedyalko Momchilov, 48, pleaded guilty in court yesterday to eight counts of abetment by conspiracy to commit theft involving a total of $900.

Nine other counts for the same offence, involving about $1,100 in all, will be taken into consideration during sentencing.

Momchilov was in Bulgaria in July last year when an unknown man offered him a job withdrawing money from ATMs in Singapore by using cards the latter had prepared.

In need of money, Momchilov accepted the offer.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Suhas Malhotra said the accused was promised a 20 per cent cut of any monies he successfully withdrew.

“The cloned ATM cards were given to the accused just before he left for the Bulgarian airport to travel to Singapore. The PIN numbers were written on the cards.”

Momchilov arrived in Singapore on Sept 4 last year and attempted to withdraw cash from different ATMs islandwide between then and Sept 8.

He tried but failed to withdraw between $100 and $300 from UOB ATMs in buildings such as Far East Shopping Centre, Orchard Towers and Changi Airport Terminal 1.

DPP Malhotra told District Judge Imran Hamid that Momchilov’s repeated unsuccessful transactions raised red flags.

There was also CCTV footage of him committing his offences.

On Sept 7, UOB vice-president, Mr Desmond Goh Khiaw Siang, was alerted by the bank’s unit card centre that several cloned cards had been recovered at the airport and Far East Shopping Centre. He lodged a police report and officers arrested Momchilov two days later when he tried to leave Singapore.

DPP Malhotra urged the judge to jail him for between nine months and a year, saying that such offences were difficult to detect and was also extremely difficult to separate legitimate withdrawals from fraudulent ones.

Momchilov will be back in court on Jan 25. For each count of abetment by conspiracy to commit theft, he can be jailed up to nine months and fined.

This article was first published on Jan 19, 2017.
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SINGAPORE – Socialite Jamie Chua has withdrawn an application for an anti-harassment protection order against business partner Sharon Tang, who had posted a photo of a wreath she received on her birthday.

The photo on social media platform Instagram sparked “hateful” comments from netizens over several weeks last year, some of which went as far as to threaten violence against her family, Ms Chua claims.

Ms Chua, 43, has also dropped applications for similar orders against six others though she still has protection orders against 58 netizens, mostly anonymous users, barring them from making personal attacks against her.

The court order, made under the Protection from Harrassment Act (POHA), prohibits them from posting “threatening, abusive or insulting words” towards Ms Chua. The order also allows her to retrieve details of the users from Instagram if such comments are made.

Ms Chua, who describes herself as a celebrity influencer and brand ambassador, first made the news at age 20 when she married Indonesian tycoon Nurdian Cuaca after three years as an air stewardess with Singapore Airlines.

She opened the first Manolo Blahnik shoe boutique in South-east Asia at the Hilton Hotel in 2007, and another in Marina Bay Sands in 2010. The stores closed in 2011 but she remained a fixture at society dos. That same year, her divorce was widely covered after she sought $450,000 a month in maintenance. She has been profiled often for her multimillion-dollar closets, which include about 200 Hermes Birkin and Kelly bags and double-digit carat diamond accessories.

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Photo Gallery

Jamie Chua’s ‘Hermes House’

Source: Instagram

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She and Ms Tang, 38, are the co-founders of Closet Raider, an online listing platform for buying and selling second-hand luxury goods.

According to court documents seen on Wednesday (Jan 18) by The Straits Times, the pair had a falling out in the month leading up to the Instagram post. Ms Chua alleged in her affidavit this was after she ticked off Ms Tang for allegedly using her name to obtain freebies from sponsors.

The online attacks allegedly started in February 2016, after Ms Tang uploaded a photo on her Instagram showing a wreath being delivered to her residence on her birthday. Ms Tang, in the caption, wrote: “Some malicious people actually sent wreath to my place instead of wishing me Happy Birthday.”

At the time, Ms Tang had about 21,000 followers. Netizens left “abusive and threatening” comments on the photo against Ms Chua, with some hinting that she was responsible for sending the wreath. Comments targeting Ms Chua’s boyfriend, two children and businesses were also made on her Instagram profile, which currently has more than 400,000 followers. A month later, Ms Chua applied for an expedited Protection Orders against 65 people, who included a Sunny Tan, a friend of her boyfriend.

In her affidavit, Ms Chua said the “acts of harrassment” caused her “many sleepless nights and episodes of extreme mood swings”.

In April, the court approved the orders against 58 of them, who were known only by their Instagram usernames, while the seven others entered mediation and negotiations with Ms Chua.

In September, she withdrew applications against six of them – mostly close friends of Mr Tan or Ms Tang – after reaching a private settlement. Early this month, she ceased her action against Ms Tang. Ms Chua has been ordered to pay $7,500 in legal costs to Ms Tang.

Under POHA, victims may apply directly for a Protection Order to stop the harassing behaviour. Breaches of protection order may amount to a criminal offence.

Speaking to The Straits Times on Wednesday (Jan 18), Ms Chua said she dropped the case on her own accord. “In the past year, all the posts have since been taken down, so there is no need to go to trial,” she said. “It is not a case of who wins or loses. We just hope to move on.”

In a Facebook post last Friday , Ms Tang wrote that she was “finally vindicated”. She said: “I stood my ground till the very end because I was innocent…”

This article was first published on Jan 18, 2017.
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