SINGAPORE: A planned temporary relocation of St Margaret’s Primary School (SMPS) that will see the school moving out of its current premises at Wilkie Road to the MacPherson area for two years has caused some consternation among parents of affected students.
The holding school, which is the site currently occupied by MacPherson Primary School, is located about 4.5km away from SMPS and is 8 minutes’ walk away from Mattar MRT station. According to a letter to parents seen by Channel NewsAsia, SMPS said it would relocate from 2020 to 2021 due to planned upgrading works to equip the school with facilities like redesigned classrooms, a dance studio, an outdoor jogging path as well as an indoor sports hall.
Apart from saying that the relocation was made possible due to MacPherson Primary’s impending merger with Cedar Primary in 2019, no other details were given in the letter about the rationale for choosing the holding site.
PARENTS’ CONCERNS: INCONVENIENCE, SCHOOL BUS FARES, CHILDREN’S STUDIES
The distance between the two schools is about 4.5 kilometres, and some parents and family members Channel NewsAsia spoke to said picking up and dropping off their daughters will be a hassle, particularly if they also have other children studying in other schools close to SMPS.
One grandfather, for example, says he helps his daughter with the ferrying of her children at times. Apart from one granddaughter studying in SMPS, he also has a grandson studying at a boys’ school in the area, as well as another child in a nearby kindergarten. All of them, he said, start school at around the same time.
“I don’t live nearby, and the children need to leave the house at about 6.30am as it is,” he said. “When SMPS moves to Mattar, I’ll have to run from one end to another. It will be a big headache for me.”
“There are some old schools nearer to here,” he added. “I don’t understand why they couldn’t move somewhere nearby.”
A map showing the location of both schools.
One mother of three also cited the additional travelling time her daughter will have to face. She explained that while her daughter has a school bus to ferry her to and from school, she takes public transport home when she has extra activities or other CCAs.
“My main reason for enrolling my daughter in SMPS was the accessibility,” said the mother, who lives within 2km of the school’s Wilkie Road premises. “She has a direct bus home now, but with the new location, she’ll need to take at least 2 buses, which is an additional 20 minutes bus ride.”
Meanwhile, another mother whose Primary 3 daughter takes a school bus to school raised concerns that the bus company will increase the fare when the school moves. The mother, who also lives within 2km of the school, says that currently she pays S$100 a month for the school bus, and expects them to increase it to “at least S$180”.
“The new location is really quite far away,” she said. “And to make matters worse, my second daughter will be enrolling into SMPS that year as well, so I’ll have to pay double.”
Beyond inconvenience, she is also worried that her daughter’s studies will suffer. Pointing out that her daughter will be part of the first batch to take the PSLE with the new scoring system, she described the issues arising from the school relocation as an “additional burden” she has to worry about.
“If it’s a little bit (of inconvenience), I can bear with it,” she said. “But it’s going to be an everyday, routine thing, where she has to wake up earlier to go there and come back later.”
“I’m worried that she won’t have the time to complete her homework, and I don’t want this to affect her PSLE results ultimately.”
She added that she was “very disappointed” that the school chose to break the news to parents about the relocation via a letter distributed to students. According to her, the letter was given out to students when school re-opened for Term 3 at the end of June.
“I went to the school to receive my daughter’s report book during the parent-teacher meeting held just before the school holidays, and no one said anything,” she said.
“They could also have emailed all the information to us,” she added, pointing out that student performance updates are regularly emailed to parents.
HOLDING SCHOOL THE NEAREST SITE THAT WILL ALLOW SMPS TO REMAIN SINGLE-SESSION
In a subsequent letter distributed to parents on Friday (Jul 13), the school explained the rationale for choosing the holding school. For one, it said that it is not easy to look for a holding school as the school’s pupils come from “all parts of Singapore”. Some students, the school said, come from as far as Johor, Sentosa, Tampines and Jurong.
Furthermore, the school’s heavy traffic is another factor that has to be taken into consideration, the school said. Traffic assessment by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) noted that around 600 cars travel to the school daily. The school is also “among the few” in Singapore with a “mega fleet of school buses” – about 48 school buses of varying sizes in 2018, according to the letter.
The school added that while the Ministry of Education (MOE) has offered the school “a few options”, the holding school at MacPherson Primary is the nearest site which would allow the school to remain single-session.
“A double-session model, such as upper primary in the morning and lower primary in the afternoon or vice versa, would mean that children in the same family may need to report and be dismissed from school at different times,” the school said in the letter. “Parents may need to engage two bus companies for two different sessions. Those who ferry their children to school may have to make multiple trips.”
As to why parents were not informed earlier, the letter said that information was not confirmed and the upgrading project could be delayed indefinitely if a suitable holding venue for SMPS could not be found.
The school explained that MOE and LTA took time to assess the traffic situation at SMPS, and how the move could affect the traffic conditions at MacPherson Primary.
“Giving information that is incomplete or premature will cause alarm and frustration as parents will not be able to make any concrete plans for the unclear future,” the school said.
“LTA was only able to get back on their approval just before the start of Term 3, 2018. Hence, parents could only be informed in the first week of Term 3, 2018.”
In response to Channel NewsAsia’s queries, SMPS principal Pang Wee Mian pointed out that parents were informed of the change, including the location of the holding site, via various communications channels such as letters to parents and the school’s website.
“Parents who intend to register their daughters during the 2019 P1 Registration Exercise were also updated when they went to the school during the 2018 P1 Registration Exercise,” she said.
Based on the feedback gathered from parents, the school also provided additional information on the considerations behind its temporary move to the holding site, and the measures it will take to facilitate the move, Ms Pang added.
“For example, we will work with LTA to assess traffic conditions during school arrival and dismissal times, and make arrangements for school bus services,” she said. “There will also be a school-based student care centre at the holding site.”
MOE WILL FIRST CONSIDER FEASIBILITY OF ON-SITE SCHOOL UPGRADING
In a statement to Channel NewsAsia, MOE explained that when it comes to upgrading schools, it will first consider if it is feasible to carry out upgrading without a temporary relocation, taking into account factors such as the school layout and safety of students and staff.
But in the case of SMPS, the upgrading works will be “extensive”, according to its divisional director for infrastructure and facility services Choo Lee See. “This is why, in the interest of the students and staff’s safety, the school will need to move to a holding site,” she said.
She added that the holding site was chosen after much consideration, and also has sufficient facilities to ensure that the school curriculum and programmes can continue without disruption.
“MOE is working closely with the school to facilitate its move to the holding site, and ensure that teaching and learning will not be affected,” said Mrs Choo.
SOME PARENTS STILL THINKING OF TRANSFERRING CHILDREN OUT
The more detailed communication from the school has helped some parents come to terms with what is happening.
One of them is the mother whose P3 daughter takes the school bus. After receiving the letter, she said that while she is still not sure if MacPherson is the “ultimate best choice”, she better understands the school’s rationale.
“They did mention that they will source for new bus drivers to facilitate (the move) better. If that does not add on to my financial burden significantly, I will not transfer her to another school.”
But another mother feels she will need to transfer her daughter out of SMPS. Her son, she explained, studies in a school nearby, and she plans to move her daughter into the school from next year.
Her home, she said, is about 6 kilometres away from the holding site, and her daughter will be taking her PSLE when the school moves in 2020.
“It will be a hassle, and she’ll need to adapt to a new school, but I don’t think I have a choice,” she said. “It’s really too far away.”
SINGAPORE: Several ministries and government agencies have been flagged by the Auditor-General for lapses in four categories – contract management, IT controls, financial controls and gaps in the management of R&D grants.
These gaps were laid out in a report by the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) released on Tuesday (Jul 17), after its audit of government accounts for the financial year 2017/2018.
The audit covered the financial statements of all 16 ministries and eight organs of state, five government funds, nine statutory boards, four government-owned companies and three other accounts.
Ministries and agencies singled out in the AGO report for lapses include the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), Ministry of Education (MOE), the People’s Association (PA), the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).
LAPSES IN CONTRACT MANAGEMENT
The PA was flagged for lapses in procurement and contract management for major events such as Chingay 2017 as well as Chinese New Year 2017.
For instance, AGO’s checks found that the PA had allowed an officer to make overseas purchases for costumes and accessories worth S$142,200 for Chingay Parade 2017, using cash or through a remittance agent.
“AGO found that some of the cash sales receipts submitted by the officer had tell-tale signs which cast doubts on their authenticity,” said the report.
“Thus, there was no assurance that the amount of reimbursement claimed by the officer was the actual amount of cash that was paid by the officer to the overseas vendor.”
The AGO also found that the PA did not properly manage welfare assistance schemes which included vouchers and groceries to needy residents.
Irregularities in contract management were also observed at MINDEF, MOE and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), according to the report.
In the case of MOE, lapses were found in school development projects managed by consultants engaged by the Education Ministry.
There were delays in payments to contractors ranging from three months to more than three years for 30 school construction projects. The final amount due to the contractors totalled S$13.61 million, AGO said.
There were also cases where modifications to construction contracts were not properly managed, resulting in an estimated overpayment of S$154,900, said the AGO.
“Given these lapses, there was no assurance that MOE had exercised adequate oversight of its consultants on issuance of final accounts and management of contract variations as well as financial prudence in the use of public funds in these development projects,” it added.
In a statement on Tuesday, MOE said it is addressing the concerns raised by the AGO and is improving its internal processes.
“MOE acknowledges the importance of prompt issuance of final accounts in our school development projects. We are working with our consultants to issue the final accounts of all 14 outstanding contracts by end 2018,” it said.
The ministry is also recovering the overpayment of S$154,900 arising from contract variations, it said.
SCDF OFFICERS BACKDATED RECORDS FOR VEHICLE MAINTENANCE
One of the lapses which the AGO described as “serious” was the backdating of records at SCDF relating to vehicle maintenance contracts.
The AGO noted that from the documents submitted for audit, records for 104 vehicle servicing jobs were not authentic. They included duplicated servicing records for the same job, as well as discrepancies between the two sets of records.
Said the AGO report: “SCDF investigated and found that these 104 servicing records had indeed been created and backdated to meet AGO’s requests for the records. They were created by three SCDF officers and the contractors.”
The officers responsible have been disciplined and the contractors taken to task by SCDF.
File photo of SCDF vehicles and equipment.
In addition, the audit found that SCDF did not have adequate procedures to ensure that two contractors had provided the required maintenance that cost a total of S$1.8 million a year.
AGO’s test checks found that S$120,000 was paid out for services that were not provided.
SCDF had relied on servicing schedules provided by the contractors and did not have procedures to establish whether vehicles had been sent for the required servicing at the right frequency, AGO said. It also did not ensure that vehicles due for servicing had indeed been checked.
SCDF acknowledged that more checks were needed and said that an integrated logistics management system will be introduced by 2020. It will be recovering the wrong payments and tightening internal procedures so that it only pays for services rendered, according to the report.
WEAKNESSES IN IT CONTROLS
As in previous years, the audit found common weaknesses in IT controls which included lapses in user accounts and access rights.
The Education Ministry, for instance, was flagged for lapses in the monitoring of IT administrators’ activities. This was for the two IT systems that support the management of financial transactions of student’s Edusave and Post-Secondary Education (PSE) accounts.
“AGO noted that MOE did not log and review the activities of seven IT administrators who were responsible for scheduling and executing computer scripts to perform financial transactions on students’ Edusave or PSE accounts,” said the report, adding that the activity logs of 16 servers for the two systems did not capture details of the administrator’s activities.
In the case of MINDEF, the AGO found that there were instances where 33 authorised users with rights to perform procurement activities might have shared their accounts with unauthorised individuals.
“All these lapses in IT controls exposed entities to the risk of unauthorised operation of the IT systems and of compromising the integrity and confidentiality of the data in the IT systems,” said the report, noting that similar weaknesses were found in other public sector entities audited last year.
RENTAL NOT CHARGED FOR PHOTO BOOTH AT ICA
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) was found to have let a recreation club set up photo booths on its premises without charging rental.
The checks were conducted after a complaint alleging that money received from the public by the club was diverted to fund welfare activities and functions attended by ICA staff members.
ICA explained that the practice was a historical legacy and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) had given approval for the club to operate photo services back in the early 1980s. Funds were mainly used for sports and recreational activities for current or retired ICA staff, AGO found.
The ICA building in Singapore. (File photo: TODAY)
Given changes in government policy since, MOF advised that ICA should seek to recover about S$6 million in forgone rental dating back to 2002. ICA said it stopped allocating its space to the recreation club from Jul 1 and would use up club funds of S$2.45 million to pay for rents owed.
R&D FUNDS
This year’s report also focused the management of research funds in a thematic audit, or in-depth examination, of research and development grant projects managed by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the National Research Foundation (NRF).
AGO observed that the Government’s total R&D expenditure has expanded and the five-year grant budget for A*STAR was S$5.26 billion while that for NRF was S$3.65 billion.
It audited 286 of more than 1,000 projects with a value of S$1.48 billion, or 61.2 per cent of S$2.42 billion awarded in total.
It found that while A*STAR had adequate processes for inviting and approving grant proposals, as well as for monitoring grant utilisation, it was slow to recover underutilised funds and did not obtain audit reports for some projects.
File photo of the A*STAR logo. (Photo: Ngau Kai Yan)
Meanwhile, NRF had “significant control weakness” for the disbursement, monitoring and review of grants, AGO said.
Grant management practices among its directorates were inconsistent and most of them relied on annual declarations by grant recipients for fund requests and project deliverables.
It was lax in verifying fund requests totalling S$52.2 million and in some cases, discrepancies in project deliverables were not detected or not followed up on, AGO said.
The two agencies said in a joint release that they will address all of AGO’s findings and “will take the necessary action to enhance the processes for R&D grant management”.
In response to AGO’s observation that grant management practices were inconsistent, NRF added that it already has a guide to guide all its partners on the management of R&D grants and a “positive affirmation framework” established by NRF’s audit committee.
However, it will now implement a system of selective checks to “provide stronger assurance”.
In general, Auditor-General Willie Tan noted that some observations in this year’s report were similar to those highlighted in the last few years, although the lapses involved different entities.
“More should be done to address these concerns so that the financial governance and controls of the public sector as a whole would be strengthened,” he said.
The AGO added that it will continue to work with the public sector entities to ensure that follow-up actions are taken.
SINGAPORE: Eight women were arrested on Monday (Jul 16) during a police enforcement operation against unlicensed massage establishments along South Bridge Road.
The suspects, aged between 22 and 35, allegedly offered sexual services at one unlicensed outlet, said the police in a news release on Tuesday.
Three of the suspects were also arrested for working without a work permit under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act.
Employees of an unlicensed massage outlet were allegedly offering sexual services. (Photo: Singapore Police Force)
If convicted of running an unlicensed massage establishment, first-time offenders face a fine of up to S$10,000, up to two years’ jail or both.
Repeat offenders face a maximum fine of S$20,000, up to five years’ jail or both.
These penalties come under the new Massage Establishments Act which was passed last November, increasing the fines by tenfold and introducing jail terms for the offence to serve as a stronger deterrent.
The police said they will also take action against landlords who knowingly lease their property to unlicensed massage establishment operators.
SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) will reject Singapore footballer Benjamin Davis’ application to defer his National Service, should there be no new facts presented in his appeal, Senior Minister Of State for Defence Heng Chee How said on Tuesday (Jul 17).
Speaking on the sidelines of his visit to the 188 Squadron, Mr Heng said that MINDEF will re-evaluate Davis’ case, should an appeal be launched.
“We have conveyed the decision with regards to the earlier application, and all applications, all appeals will have got to be based on facts and we’ll have to evaluate the facts, and if the facts are no different then our position will be consistent,” he said.
“For a country like Singapore, we want to value every Singaporean and we want to develop our talent of course, but at the same time, we must also remember that the purpose for all this development is that we have a country and that all of us actually have a duty to one another and this country.
“So we have got to make a good balance between our duty to this country and our very genuine urge to enable everybody to reach their highest potential.”
Mr Heng also stressed that MINDEF has been transparent in the way it assesses NS deferments.
“The criteria that MINDEF uses to assess applications has been transparent and has been consistent over time so there’s no movement of the goal posts on the part of MINDEF or SAF (Singapore Armed Forces) – this is known to applicants, certainly in this particular case, the family was informed of the considerations beforehand,” he noted.
In a previous statement, MINDEF had said that Davis’ application was not approved as he “does not meet the criteria for long-term deferment from full-time NS”.
“Very few applications have been approved over the years and based on criteria which are made known to the public.In sports, deferments are granted only to those who represent Singapore in international competitions like the Olympic Games and are potential medal winners for Singapore. In the last 15 years, only three have met this criteria,” MINDEF said.
The 17-year-old has signed a two-year contract with newly promoted Premier League club Fulham, the club announced on its website last Friday. Davis, the first Singaporean to ink a professional contract with a top-tier English club, turns 18 in November.
Davis had initially joined Fulham on a two-year scholarship deal in July last year, but his performances for the Cottagers’ Under-18 side impressed the club which decided to hand him a new deal. Davis made 10 appearances in midfield during his first season.
Singaporean footballer Benjamin Davis has applied for NS deferment. (Photo: Football Association of Singapore)
In a note sent to NS commanders on Tuesday seen by Channel NewsAsia, the ministry had explained its rejection of Davis’ deferment application and said it considered the Fulham contract a “personal pursuit”.
“Davis’ signing of a senior contract with Fulham FC is a personal pursuit, no different from the personal pursuits by other pre-enlistees like university studies or working in other professional fields,” the note read.
“We know that football is popular among Singaporeans and the EPL has a keen following here. However, granting deferment to Davis would be unfair to other pre-enlistees who put their personal pursuits on hold to serve NS dutifully.”
SINGAPORE: The People’s Association (PA) was flagged for various lapses in the latest report by the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) for the financial year of 2017/2018 released on Tuesday (Jul 17).
These included lapses in procurement for festive street light-ups and the management of welfare assistance schemes.
The AGO report also said there were “serious weaknesses in controls over overseas purchases and payments which could be exploited.”
LAPSES IN PROCUREMENT FOR STREET LIGHT-UPS
PA and one of its grassroots organisations failed to adhere to Government procurement principles of open and fair competition, transparency and value for money for two tenders and four quotations, AGO noted in its report.
The tenders, worth S$500,000, were for the manufacture of decorative items for street light-ups for Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 and Chinese New Year 2017.
The two tenders for both street light-ups were awarded to the same overseas manufacturer, who had been awarded the contracts every year since 2014.
In its proposal for the Mid-Autumn Festival 2016 light-up, the company had listed additional costs including accommodation for its workers during their stay in Singapore, transportation charges for materials and the provision of a site for assembling lanterns.
However, the grassroots organisation did not consider these additional costs on top of the tender price in its evaluation when comparing the price for the proposals.
The same company was also the sole bidder for the Chinese New Year 2017 light-up, and similarly included additional cost items that the grassroots organisation did not mention when seeking approval for the tender.
A 13-metre tall rooster was part of the 2017 Chinese New Year street light-up. (Photo: Lee Li Ying)
AGO found in its report that the grassroots organisation should have included the costs of the additional items in the price comparison so that all tender offers could be evaluated on the same basis.
“Besides the issue of fairness, there was also no assurance that the contract was awarded to the tenderer which could provide the best value,” it stated.
In addition, the grassroots organisation accepted the proposal from the company after the specified closing time for the Chinese New Year 2017 light-up tender, and allowed the company to revise its proposals and bid price after the tender had closed.
While AGO noted that there was only one bidder for this tender, it said that accepting the submission of late tender proposals and allowing the company to amend its proposals and bid price after the closure of the tender went against the principles of open and fair competition as well as transparency.
“Such lapses could lead to allegations of unfairness,” it said.
The contracts signed with the overseas tenderer were also based on the laws of the company’s country, and required any unresolved disputes to be filed for litigation in the courts of that country.
As the other country has a different legal system, such provisions in the contracts may not safeguard the Singapore agencies’ interests, AGO said.
PA explained that the contracts were prepared by the company and the grassroots organisation without the advice of PA’s legal department. Moving forward, the grassroots organisation will prepare contracts, PA said.
PA informed AGO that the procurement lapses were largely due to the procuring team having an inadequate understanding of Government procurement guidelines and operating under time constraints, according to the report.
PA also said it would take measures to improve its staff’s understanding and compliance with Government procurement requirements as well as ensure proper contract management documentation, the report noted.
OFFICER SUBMITTED CLAIMS WITH DUBIOUS AUTHENTICITY
AGO’s checks also revealed that a PA officer’s reimbursement claims for overseas purchases and payments for costumes and accessories worth S$142,200 for Chingay Parade 2017, were supported by some supporting documents with “tell-tale signs” that cast doubt on their authenticity.
The officer paid for the purchases in cash or through a remittance agent and claimed for reimbursement using cash sales receipts.
There was no assurance that the reimbursement claimed by the officer was the actual amount he paid for the items, AGO said.
It added that while he was accompanied by at least one other staff during the sourcing and purchasing trips, he had made two additional personal overseas trips at his own expense to make purchases, settle final payments for earlier purchases and obtain cash sales receipts. This exposed PA to the risk of duplicated and inflated claims, according to AGO.
PA had also posted Invitations to Quote for the items in the Government’s electronic procurement system, GeBIZ. It subsequently posted “no award” announcements in GeBIZ even though it had awarded the contracts to overseas vendors not registered under the system separately through manual quotations.
AGO said conducting parallel manual quotation exercises are not allowed; as obtaining manual quotations from overseas supplies are not subject to the more stringent controls of GeBIZ, PA could be exposed to risks from the manipulation of bids as well as allegations of discriminatory practices and a lack of transparency.
PA has informed AGO that it has stopped all overseas direct purchases by staff and procured the costumes and accessories for Chingay through GeBIZ since April 2017, as well as reviewed past purchases for Chingay to determine if there were similar weaknesses, AGO said.
RECURRING FAILURE TO GET PROPER APPROVALS FOR CONTRACTS
AGO checked 189 purchases worth S$6.03 million by 18 grassroots organisations, and found that 13 grassroots did not obtain proper approvals for the award of contracts and variations in these contracts for 25 purchases totalling S$619,900.
Of these, 19 purchases were made with only verbal approvals or approvals after the goods and services had been delivered, while the rest were made with approvals from parties that did not have the authority to grant them.
AGO noted that PA’s failure to obtain proper approvals is a recurring lapse, with a similar observation noted in the report for the financial year 2014/2015.
PA’s explanation was that some of the lapses resulted from unexpected requirements that arose at short notice.
Nonetheless, it acknowledged that proper approvals should have been sought for the contracts and said that it would review its financial procedures and strengthen the approval processes to cater for contingencies and ensure proper approvals are sought. It also said it would step up procurement training for grassroots organisations, according to the report.
MANAGEMENT OF WELFARE ASSISTANCE SCHEMES
AGO test checks also revealed that cash gifts and assistance-in-kind given out under grassroots organisations’ welfare assistance schemes from April 2016 to June 2017 were not properly managed.
As a result, there was no assurance that the assistance, which included supermarket vouchers, food vouchers and groceries for needy residents, were given to only eligible applicants and properly accounted for, the report said.
For example, three grassroots organisations did not have documentary evidence to substantiate residents’ eligibility for cash and assistance-in-kind at festive events.
PA said the applicants were interviewed and assessed for welfare assistance but that it was not documented, and said it would put in place procedures to standardise the evaluation process across grassroots organisations.
AGO also found that there were weak controls over reimbursement claims for food vouchers, with some grassroots organisations failing to invalidate vouchers that had already been used, and not tagging them to the reimbursement claims. One grassroots organisation also did not keep records of authorised representatives who could claim reimbursement, exposing itself to the risk of paying to authorised individuals.
In addition, some of the groceries purchased for distribution to needy residents were not the same in type and price as those stated in the contracts with a vendor, or could not be accounted for.
PA said that it would strengthen its procedures on the stock-taking, packing and distribution of groceries, the report stated.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said the Government is firmly committed to ensuring accountability and transparency in its use of public resources and has been stepping efforts to address the issues identified by AGO.
“We agree with AGO that it is important for public agencies to exercise due diligence in managing their contracts,” it said.
For example, the PA has taken steps to address the financial controls lapses highlighted by AGO and is enhancing its systems to strengthen its procurement and contract management functions, MOF added.
The report covered AGO’s audit of financial statements incorporating the accounts of all 16 Government ministries and eight organs of state, the financial statements of three statutory boards, a Government fund, four Government-owned companies and three other accounts.
Other lapses found in the report include weaknesses in Information Technology controls and gaps in the management of research and development grants.
SINGAPORE: The latest round of property cooling measures may have caught the market by surprise with its speed and severity, with an analyst describing it as “a sledgehammer to kill a fly”.
However, the warning signs were there: High land prices, a jump in the number of new housing loans, and a wage growth lagging behind economic expansion were some of the red flags which prompted the authorities to take pre-emptive action, several experts said.
Add to these the increasing external risks which dampened the economic outlook, and there was an urgency to curb “euphoria” in the property market, as Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) chief Ravi Menon put it.
“Economic growth is healthy in 2017, and also in the first quarter of 2018, but there are potential macroeconomic and external risks that are not to be ignored. The rising interest rates, the low inflation rate, political instability and the trade war,” said Associate Professor Sing Tien Foo, who is the Director of the Institute of Real Estate Studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
WHERE THE NUMBERS STAND
According to experts, there are several indicators that guides the Government’s decision making on the property market: Gross domestic product (GDP), wage and income levels, banks loan growth, property price index, volume of transactions as well as land prices.
Over the past year, land prices have gone up by 15 to 20 per cent, said CBRE head of research for Singapore and Southeast Asia Desmond Sim. The surge was fuelled by the en bloc frenzy and record-breaking bids in the Government land sales programme.
A Colliers report in April estimates that the total value of collective sales transactions last year to be at S$8.13 billion – the best showing since 2007 – with S$5.83 billion already raked in for the first quarter of this year from 17 successful residential en bloc sales.
File photo of private housing in Singapore. (Photo: TODAY)
Meanwhile, record-high bids for Government land sales sites were received, including a Cuscaden Road site which sold for S$2,377 per square foot per plot ratio. If the cooling measures were not introduced, the pace of increase in land prices could go unabated and this would likely lead to upward pressure on property prices, said Mr Sim.
Ms Christine Li, senior director of research at Cushman & Wakefield, reiterated that rising land prices would mean developers have to launch new projects at higher prices. This would, in turn, lift the resale prices of other properties in the vicinity, and possibly lead to an unsustainable pace of price increases, she added.
Earlier this month, just two days before the cooling measures were announced, MAS said at a briefing on its annual report that new housing loans over the last 12 months had risen by 34 per cent year-on-year.
Calling the jump “worrisome,” Professor Sumit Agarwal from NUS Business School said that these rates of bank lending “mimic” the situation in the United States before the subprime mortgage crisis struck. At the time, housing loans grew 50 per cent between 2004 and 2006, before the housing market crashed in 2007 and spiralled into a global financial crisis.
The dramatic rise in lending could “destabilise the banking system and the economy in whole”, Professor Sumit said.
The situation is compounded in a rising interest rate environment, with expectations for further rate increases as the market forecasts the United States’ Federal Reserve to increase its rates two more times this year.
However, Mr Alan Cheong, senior director of research at Savills, noted that the 34 per cent spike was a cumulative increase over 12 months. He added:
Housing loans growth over time have come down … It’s not a good reason to use loan growth as one of the reasons to curb the market.
Two days before the cooling measures were announced, MAS said at a briefing on its annual report that new housing loans over the last 12 months had risen by 34 per cent year-on-year. (Photo: Reuters/Edgar Su)
While private property prices currently have not matched previous peak levels in 2013 and 2014, Professor Ong Seow Eng from NUS’ real estate department said that back then, the environment of higher interest rates was absent.
As a result, the Government’s fear that home buyers would find it increasingly tough to repay their loans might have gone up a few notches, the experts said.
“The interest rate may also expose the vulnerabilities of the banking system, if the concentration of loans in real estate in the bank portfolio is too high. Real estate market and the banking and finance market are highly interrelated,” said Assoc Prof Sing.
Nevertheless, the cooling measures were pre-emptive, as data from MAS and the banks showed that the banks’ exposure to property-related loans are well within safety limits.
Based on MAS statistics, housing and bridging loans in May stood at S$203.1 billion, accounting for slightly more than 30 per cent of total loans. This is in line with MAS regulation which limits the banks’ property-related exposure at 35 per cent of their total eligible assets.
DBS head of secured lending Tok Geok Peng said home loans “form a large part of” the bank’s consumer loans. DBS’ latest financial report showed that housing loans make up 22 per cent of its total loan portfolio across all the markets it operates in.
OCBC’s total exposure to housing loans across all its markets is 26 per cent, while UOB’s is slightly higher at 27.6 per cent. All three banks did not provide data specific to the Singapore market.
Nevertheless, MAS data showed that the loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR) has remained stable from January to May, hovering between 86 and 87 per cent. LDR is used to measure banks’ liquidity, where a 100 per cent ratio means that the bank loans out a dollar to a customer for a dollar of deposits it receives. Market convention generally dictates that an ideal LDR is usually between 80 and 90 per cent.
Turning to housing loan growth, MAS statistics showed that this grew by 4.8 per cent in May year-on-year.
Mr Paul Chew, who heads research at Phillip Securities, noted that the current level of housing loan growth is conservative.
“It is not irrational lending on (the part of) bankers,” he added.
Mr Sim also noted that the strong growth in transaction volume would automatically lead to a rise in new housing loans.
While the indicators in the banking system may not have set off alarm bells on their own, they could be of some concern when one looks at the bigger picture.
MAS statistics says housing and bridging loans in May stood at S$203.1 billion, accounting for slightly more than 30 per cent of total loans. (Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
Singapore’s economic growth has generally hovered above 3 per cent over the last few quarters, with latest flash estimates for second quarter GDP growth coming in at 3.8 per cent.
While economic growth has been generally healthy, it is “not as bullish as private property prices”, noted Mr Sim.
Assoc Prof Sing also pointed out that wage growth has not kept pace with GDP growth, and this may widen the housing price to income ratio.
Based on latest available statistics, real median monthly household income from work grew 1.5 per cent last year, the lowest growth rate since 2009 when the Republic was hit by a global financial crisis
Economists had attributed the lower growth in median household income from work to higher inflation in 2017. In contrast, the Republic experienced deflation in 2015 and 2016. MAS expects inflation this year to be similar to last year’s level.
At the same time, the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) price index showed that private property prices went up 9.1 per cent since its trough in in the second quarter of last year. In comparison, private property prices declined 11.6 per cent over a period of four years from mid-2013 to mid-2017.
Mr Sim said that the concern lies not so much in the magnitude of the price increase, but its pace.
“The 11.6 per cent decline took four years. This (9.1 per cent jump) took four quarters,” he said, adding that prices would jump more if the Government did not act.
The experts, however, were split over whether the momentum was too fast. Some noted that if left unchecked, the run-up in prices could be faster than the previous boom cycle from mid-2009 to mid-2013. Others pointed out that what the market has seen over the last year pales in comparison to the start of the previous cycle, where quarterly price increase reached as high as almost 16 per cent.
Likewise, the 25 per cent jump in the number of property transactions over the last 12 months divided opinions as to whether it was a cause for concern. This could imply that demand have been coming mainly from investors, he said.
Others felt the spike could be a result of a low-base effect from the previous year, and not necessarily an indicator of an overheating market. Ms Li said the increase was significantly lower than the 98 per cent increase in volumes between 2008 and 2010. Then, the number of private residential units sold hit 40,000 over a year, compared with the current 25,000.
In raising the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) rates and tightening the Loan-to-Value (LTV) limits, the Government said these were done to “cool the property market and keep prices in line with economic fundamentals”. It added:
The sharp increase in prices, if left unchecked, could run ahead of economic fundamentals and raise the risk of a destabilising correction later, especially with rising interest rates and the strong pipeline of housing supply.
This latest round of cooling measures — the ninth in nine years — comes on the back of several others that have been rolled out progressively since 2009 when private property prices started skyrocketing.
File photo of a private condominium under construction in Singapore. (Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
Apart from increasing the ABSD rates by five per cent for individuals and 10 per cent for entities, the LTV limit has been tightened by five percentage points.
This is not the first time the Government has tightened the LTV limit. It was reduced from 90 to 80 per cent in 2010. That was also when the Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD) was introduced for properties that were sold within one year of purchase, in a move aimed at deterring speculative activity.
Between 2010 and 2011, some of the measures were tightened to curb the persistent rise in prices.
The ABSD was first introduced in end-2011. More rounds of Government intervention ensued, which saw loan tenures cut and ABSD rates raised as prices continued ticking upwards.
In 2013, the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) framework was introduced, requiring banks to ensure that the monthly debt obligations of home buyers cannot exceed 60 per cent of their household monthly income. Prices peaked in the third quarter of 2013, and went on to decline gradually for 16 straight quarters.
The Government eased some measures in the first quarter of last year. Under the changes then, the SSD will be payable if a homeowner sells his property within three years of purchase, down from four years previously.
BUT DEMAND STILL HOLDING UP
Despite several rounds of property curbs, Singapore’s property market has proved to be resilient, as prices rose quickly over the past year.
On the day the latest cooling measures were announced, thousands of prospective homebuyers flocked to the showrooms, after property developers brought forward the launches to beat the midnight deadline.
About 1,000 units across all three projects – Riverfront Residence at Hougang, Park Colonial at Woodleigh and Stirling Residences at Queenstown – were sold under five hours.
“What happened that Thursday night was the fear of missing out,” said Mr Sim, as he attributed the frenzy to the familiar Singaporean “kiasu” trait.
In land-scarce Singapore where people are increasingly affluent, it is no surprise that demand for properties has been relatively strong, except during economic downturns.
The Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s sent property prices on a free fall, dropping by 35 per cent in 1998. Prices climbed back up but remained relatively subdued until 2005, due to a series of events such as the dot-com bubble burst and the severe acute respiratory syndrome crisis, which kept demand at bay.
Prices started rising faster after 2005 but in 2008 and 2009, the property market was hit by the onset of the global financial crisis, with prices falling 24.9 per cent. But the down cycle was short-lived, lasting only two years before the market started recovering.
Notwithstanding a period of slow decline in prices from 2013 to 2017 as a result of Government intervention, the market has generally been holding up well as the Singapore economy grew steadily.
The scene at Park Colonial showroom on the day the latest cooling measures were announced (Jul 5). (Photo: Serene Ng)
“It’s a sign that the Singapore economy … and the job market is working. Economy is doing well, so people have the ability to buy,” said Mr Cheong on the resilience of the property market.
He added that affordability has increased for certain segments of the population. Income levels of the top 30 percentile of Singapore residents went up between 13 and 18 per cent during the recent four-year period when private property prices were declining.
Experts also pointed out that there has been an abundance of liquidity post-global financial crisis. Until last year, the US government had been increasing money supply through quantitative easing and keeping interest rates low.
Part of the money is starting to flow back from overseas buyers into the Singapore property market after they had focused their attention elsewhere as a result of earlier cooling measures, some experts said.
With places such as Hong Kong, China and Australia implementing their own cooling measures to tame their residential property markets, and a clampdown on corruption in China and India, “their money has to be parked somewhere”, said Prof Sumit.
Domestically, Singaporeans tend to have greater faith putting their money in real estate than in other asset classes like equities or bonds, Mr Cheong noted.
“The market is sending this message … It’s ingrained,” he said.
The idea of having a tangible asset that can be bequeathed to the next generation is also etched into the Singaporean psyche.
ZACD Group executive director Nicholas Mak added:
Quite a few generations of Singaporeans have been conditioned to think that it’s good to own your own home … If it’s good to own your own home, it’s good to own another home because of capital appreciation”
To many Singaporeans, property is a “sure-win” investment. There is the general perception that the value of properties would go up in the future, said Mr Ku Swee Yong, chief executive of International Property Advisor.
He noted that the strong overall demand has kept prices resilient in the Singapore property market, and this is aided by banks giving out loans based on the valuation set by the value appointed by the developers. He believed that the market would be less exuberant if banks rely on independent valuation.
EN BLOC ASPIRATIONS ON HOLD?
As part of the latest cooling measures, the authorities also imposed a non-remittable five per cent ABSD on developers buying residential properties for housing development, effectively putting all collective sales projects on the line as the cost for developers has gone up significantly.
It has already claimed at least one casualty.
JLL regional director of investments, Tan Hong Boon, said that a collective sale committee has pulled the plug on an en bloc bid, after it felt that the gains may not be attractive. Mr Tan, however, declined to reveal more details.
Horizon Towers and the area surrounding it. The condominium complex was put up for en bloc sale at a reserve price of S$1.1 billion the week before latest cooling measures was announced. (Photo: JLL)
At Waterloo Apartments, its collective sale committee has reverted to its original plan of getting the authorities’ approval for the site to be zoned for hotel developments.
Ms Christina Sim, who heads collective sales at Cushman & Wakefield, said the committee had wanted to launch the development for sale as a residential site, after seeing the higher prices fetched by en bloc residential projects.
Since the cooling measures were announced, en bloc bids across the island have been plunged into uncertainty.
“(Is it) game over?” That’s what many residents who are trying for an en bloc had on their minds,” said Mr Terence Lian, investment sales head of Huttons Asia.
The real estate company is the marketing agent for the collective sale of 15 sites. Last week, Mr Lian held separate meetings with the collective sales committees of Kensington Park and Pine Grove, to address any concerns which residents might have, and to discuss the way forward.
Given the large size of the two sites, Mr Lian said they were more vulnerable to the impact of the property cooling measures, as developers might not be confident that they can sell all the units before the five-year deadline in order to apply for the remission of the 25 per cent ABSD.
After their meeting with Huttons, residents remained upbeat about their en bloc prospects, even though they acknowledged there are causes for concern.
“We were taken aback, didn’t expect the cooling measures to come out so fast,” said Mr Phua Thye Hin, chairperson of Kensington Park’s collective sale committee.
The secretary of the committee, Ms Tee Lee Lian, said they received feedback from residents that they were concerned how the cooling measures could hamper their en bloc prospects.
The 314-unit condominium at Serangoon Gardens has garnered 70 per cent of owners agreeing to the collective sale at a reserve price of S$1.05 billion, and they hope to get the required 80 per cent consent by the fourth quarter of this year.
Over at Pine Grove, its collective sale committee chairperson Kogi Murthi said that some owners stopped asking for higher prices after the cooling measures were announced. The current asking price is S$1.72 billion.
Her team believes that Pine Grove still stand a strong chance given its location in the Holland-Bukit Timah area. So far, 77 per cent of owners at the 660-unit development have signed the collective sales agreement.
Mr Vincent Teo, who chairs the Mandarin Gardens collective sale committee, said they are “not giving up”, although there is still some way to go to achieving the requisite consent. Currently, 60 per cent of owners of the 1,006-unit development at East Coast have agreed to sell it at an asking price of S$2.48 billion.
For residents who are opposed to the en bloc attempts, they are hoping that the government intervention could put the brakes on.
Mr A J Leow, who is a resident at Ivory Heights, said he felt “a sense of relief” when the cooling measures were announced.
Cashew Heights resident Andy Goh was, however, sceptical about any lasting impact from the cooling measures. They would be “effective temporarily” only, and the momentum will come back few months down the road, he lamented.
SINGAPORE: The dream was nearly complete, the quest for the greatest World Cup result of all time nearly accomplished. In a tournament ruled by underdogs, a pup of a country – not yet 27 years old – hoofed, hared and hustled to the very last, only to fall short against a supremely gifted French outfit.
Even then Croatia refused to stay down, as has been their story for the last five weeks in Russia, and what a narrative it was. Back home their small and declining population continue to suffer the effects of economic and political uncertainty, with a football federation awash in corruption scandals that have directly impacted players – including one now recognised as the best at the World Cup, Luka Modric.
Like many of his teammates, the captain was made a refugee during the Balkan War, after rebels torched his house and executed his relatives. But Modric and his cohorts flourished partially because of such challenges, not in spite of them. And at the World Cup, their indefatigable nature came to the fore in group matches I had the fortune of witnessing in person, through three straight gruelling knockout games which stretched into extra time, and all the way to the final itself.
Here their legs burned and chests hurt but having known worse pain, they pushed and pressed to keep their dream alive, far past the limits of their abilities, until one goal behind became two became three became the end of the line.
Croatia did not learn to do this from an elaborate blueprint presented on animated powerpoint slides. They did not practise this on stylishly-pruned grounds of a fancy million-dollar facility. This was as basic a football – and sporting – principle as it gets: Team work, hard work, pure and simple, pays off.
Modric holds the Golden Ball prize at the end of the 2018 World Cup final football match between France and Croatia (Photo: AFP / Franck Fife)
HEY SINGAPORE, DO YOU EVEN DO SPORTS?
It would appear this message has not been lost on Singaporean fans, both hardcore and casual. Throughout the competition, Croatia’s gutsy displays have won online hearts in the thousands, and at a public viewing party for the final I overheard plenty of keywords like “determined” and “fighting spirit” every time a checkered red-and-white shirt threw himself at the ball.
All of which has made me wonder: Why can’t we convert this consumption, this awareness into advancing Singapore’s football and sporting culture?
Hold up first – do we have one? Let’s bring it back to our de facto national sport. Parents who want their kids to make a career out of football – few and far between. Void deck and street soccer court culture – fast disappearing, if not disappeared. Youth academies – forced to relocate after residential complaints about noise.
Oh, and there’s that national team stuck in a loop of damnation.
Singapore’s footballers react to a 0-3 loss to Bahrain in a 2019 Asian Cup qualifier at the Singapore Sports Hub in November 2017 (Photo: Jeremy Long)
All this, while Singaporeans sit glued to their couches, devouring football in the EPL and other European football divisions every weekend, and the World Cup every four years.
High-quality, first-rate sporting spectacle taking place not halfway across the world, but on a screen in front of you: Is this not how all athletes – from weekend warriors to professionals to greats – are influenced and inspired, too?
I’m no footballer, but football is how I started. Arsenal vs Man Utd on the telly, with the imperious Patrick Vieira – Vicks patch and all – storming from box to box, just running and going at it hard, just doing whatever it takes to propel his side to victory, just like the Croats of today.
Watching him, I wanted to kick about with the other kids downstairs, so I started jogging to improve my stamina, got hooked on endurance sport, joined kayak racing as a CCA, then rode the endorphin wave into the national squad for dragon boat and later, rowing.
This is, in essence, about loving sport, a journey that can start in a living room and be nudged along by supportive parents, PE teachers and the like. Because in the absence of a dedicated sports ministry and the rapid dissolving of local sports media, the onus is truly on us, the people, to kickstart a genuine sporting culture.
Ben Davis, together with his father Harvey, signing a two-year scholarship with English side Fulham. (Photo: Fulham FC)
How we respond to the news of the day matters, too. Take the unfolding Ben Davis saga: Enough with the finger-pointing and blame-laying, there are only so many instances where online outcry brought actual change.
The best response, I feel, is to take real action – get out there and kick a ball, get your kids to kick a ball, and don’t stop until Singapore has a critical mass of footballers doing well enough to warrant a change of deferment criteria.
It will take time but we are young, not even as young as a certain World Cup finalist, and the years can be used to slowly wean mindsets to embrace a more conducive attitude and ambition when it comes to sport.
Take one argument on the Davis situation which I came across on Twitter. It lost me from the get-go using phrases such as “not a guarantee” and “return on investment”, but regained my attention with the claim that Davis’ chances of playing in the EPL are “romantically dreamy”.
I’m sorry but football, and sport, is all about dreaming – and the keeping on of dreaming. Just ask Croatia.
SINGAPORE: In recent years, we have seen an increase in international and national initiatives to promote a shared focus, empower greater collaborative actions and drive stronger progress towards sustainability.
For example, the 17 UN’s Sustainable Development Goals chart the road ahead on major global challenges and focus areas for the next years until 2030.
They represent a significant step forward in understanding the joint efforts that politics, business and society must make towards ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity.
In November 2015, major cities, regions, companies and investors from around the world signed the Paris Pledge for Action – a collective statement by non-state actors to ensure that the level of ambition set by the Paris Agreement on climate change is met or exceeded.
Meanwhile, Singapore is strengthening its stand by designating 2018 as the Year of Climate Action. So far, the movement has gathered more than 230,000 pledges from individuals, organisations and educational institutions to fight climate change for a sustainable Singapore.
Noticeably, there is a greater call for businesses around the world to step up their commitment, increase their contributions and take the lead.
Together with their employees, suppliers and business partners, companies play an important role in advancing sustainability not only within the company and along the value chain from suppliers to customers, but also within relevant industries and in local communities.
Companies can no longer remain passive. The fact is that humankind already has a global environmental footprint that is greater than the planet’s resources can sustain. Continued growth in the world’s population and global economic activity will inevitably lead to rising consumption levels and resource depletion.
Conor Barry, of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, said governments alone would not be able to fulfill the Paris climate agreement, but would require joint initiatives from the private sector. (Photo: AFP/Damien Meyer)
As sustainability becomes a matter of urgency, companies must do more. However, putting sustainability initiatives into action is not without challenges, when we consider the costs of investment and complexity of engaging multiple parties with different interests, for example.
Hence, companies must prioritise goals, balance interests and define their contributions across all areas of the businesses and towards social engagement.
A SMALLER ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT
Beginning with their products and solutions, companies have the task to deliver greater performance and improve living standards, but with a smaller footprint. In this situation, achieving more with less is possible only through innovation in a holistic manner.
This requires not only developing individual “green” products, but also optimising their footprint across the source, produce, use and disposal phases.
As such, more and more companies are offering eco-friendly products and complementing their marketing efforts with consumer education on how to save energy and water during everyday use.
In this equation, suppliers are important sustainability partners throughout the entire value chain. The goal is to secure the right suppliers for the long term by applying the same stringent selection process worldwide, regardless of whether they are based in developed or emerging markets.
A comprehensive evaluation covers sustainability performance and risks, as well as performance relating to safety, health, environment, social standards and fair business practices.
Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House went dark for an hour Saturday to kick off a global campaign to raise awareness about the impacts of climate change. (Photo: AFP/Peter Parks)
A successful example is the global chemical industry’s Together for Sustainability initiative, where 20 leading companies have joined forces to set the sustainability benchmark for supplier evaluation and build a strong community of sustainable suppliers internationally.
Notably, employees are the most important asset and success factor for any company. When it comes to implementing sustainability strategies, it is people who make the difference – through their dedication, skills, and knowledge. They contribute to sustainable development, both in their daily business lives and as members of society.
To increase employees’ engagement, a viable first step is sustainability training on the company’s sustainability strategy, targets and initiatives, history of sustainability, and global challenges.
The objective is to equip employees with deep knowledge and understanding, and enable them to contribute and engage various stakeholders through dialogue and collaboration.
Additionally, in an international environment, online and classroom training can be conducted using standardised training materials to ensure consistency.
With this approach, Henkel has trained more than 50,000 employees as Sustainability Ambassadors globally.
The next step is to motivate employees to make their contributions in their work and beyond. For example, employees can act as ambassadors at their sites through various initiatives, such as bring-your-own-cup, using centralised bins, and observing a daily earth hour during lunch time.
Hong Kong harbour skyline after the building lights were switched off for the Earth Hour environmental campaign AFP/Philip FONG
They can also visit schools to teach young children about sustainable behavior in their homes and in daily lives. Besides imparting knowledge, these school initiatives can encourage children to be an influencer among their family members and prepare them to be future sustainability leaders.
Additionally, companies can support employees in volunteer and community projects that make a positive social impact, by providing funds and granting paid days off from work.
In a comprehensive survey in 2014, our stakeholders’ responses highlighted the importance of integrating sustainability in all activities and ownership in addressing environmental impact.
It is thus clear to us that sustainability must be an integral part of corporate strategies and anchored in corporate cultures. This is fundamental to positioning companies and their employees at the forefront of driving sustainable development.
Thomas Holenia is president of Henkel Singapore and managing director of Henkel’s global supply chain in Singapore.
SINGAPORE: If you’re the kind of person that does not like jostling with the crowd and queuing for your lunch, a new Netflix-type service for meals may whet your appetite.
MealPal, which was founded in 2016, on Monday (Jul 16) launched its subscription service for meals in Singapore – its first market in Southeast Asia. For a monthly fee of S$95.88, users will get 12 restaurant meals which works out to S$7.99 per meal. For S$2 more, MealPal will throw in two additional hawker meals, its general manager of International Markets Paul Clifford told Channel NewsAsia during an interview before the launch.
These prices are generally 40 per cent less than if you dine in the restaurant, he added.
The start-up said it has signed up more than 250 food and beverage (F&B) partners to its platform, and these include restaurants like Teppei Syokudo, Tuk Tuk Cha, Soup Spoon, Grain Traders and Folks Collective, as well as half a dozen hawkers each at Amoy Street Food Centre, Maxwell Food Centre and Lau Pa Sat.
The service will launch at four business hubs in Singapore – Buona Vista, Central Business District (CBD), Novena and Orchard – for lunch and dinner every weekday, it added.
(Image: MealPal)
What stands it apart from other meal delivery services like foodpanda, Deliveroo or GrabFood is that it doesn’t deliver. Users will make their orders before 10.30am for lunch and 4pm for dinner, and set the time they will turn up to pick up the food.
Another distinctive feature is that these F&B partners will only offer one dish each day with no customisations allowed, Mr Clifford explained, which brings economies of scale.
“By identifying which dish to serve, restaurants are able to prepare the orders in advance without having to hire more people or change their processes,” he said. “The service is on top of their usual business, as they will continue to serve walk-in customers … so they can expect additional revenue.”
Mr Clifford said in markets like Australia, its partners typically see “thousands of dollars every week” on top of their usual earnings and he hopes Singapore partners will see similar earnings.
PREDICTABILITY IS MONEY
One hawker who is keen to see what benefits MealPal will bring to his business is Mr Chan Heng Tong, owner of Spinach Soup at Amoy Street Food Centre.
Mr Chan, who runs the Spinach Soup stall at Amoy Street Food Centre, says he’s open to technologies that potentially improve revenue for his business.
Mr Chan, whose stall has been there for the past three years, said the unique challenges of doing business in the Central Business District means he is willing to try new things to help monetise the stall’s lull periods.
“Here, there are only three hours (at lunchtime) when the crowd is here,” the hawker told Channel NewsAsia in an interview. “As a stall owner, we like to see people queuing up to buy our food as it creates awareness; but it also means we lose business when we can’t meet the demand.
“So, the only way is to increase manpower, increase the stall space or extend the available time we have to sell food,” he explained.
MealPal’s offering helps with the last option, as the preorders that come in would allow his workers to use the otherwise lull period of 10am to 11am “when they do nothing” to prepare the food, Mr Chan said.
The subscription model also has another advantage: Customers who preorder will tend to turn up for their food since they have already paid, the hawker said.
Office workers from nearby office buildings may stay away if it is raining heavily, as there’s no shelter to the food centre, or shun it due to the tropical heat, said Mr Chan.
“Hot weather, we die. Cold weather, we also die. So if they pay already, they die die will come.”
As for fast-food restaurant Grain Traders, MealPal allows it to bring its food to office workers who might have decided against eating there due to its higher prices.
Grain Traders general manager Joel Ong said that its “restaurant-quality food” has a higher price point – with bowls starting from S$16 – because “we do everything from scratch with only the best possible ingredients”. As such, he recognised that not everyone wants to pay that premium for lunch.
“With MealPal offering our meals for almost half the price of a typical bowl, we hope to open up great quality food to more consumers,” Mr Ong said.
A Grain Traders customer picking up her meal. (Photo: MealPal)
Mr Ong also pointed out that MealPal is different from existing food delivery services, as the service is not just about convenience – “skipping queues and making food choices easier with just one food option per restaurant” – but also about adding value to customers.
“That’s the key difference for MealPal – they help to create efficiencies in the restaurant which means customers can save money,” he told Channel NewsAsia.
CATERING TO SINGAPORE MARKET
MealPal’s general manager acknowledged that Singapore is a dynamic F&B market with a strong food culture and, as such, it had localised some of its features to suit the local market’s palate.
For instance, it chose to do away with communicating with F&B partners here using email and went with SMS notifications instead. Mr Clifford explained that following a market research this April, the team found out that not many hawkers here own an email account, much less know how to use one. They do, however, all own mobile devices and are familiar with SMS and WhatsApp, he added.
Another characteristic here is that lunch time is a social affair for many office workers and they would head out as groups, the executive pointed out.
This is the reason why Singapore is the only market MealPal is launching its WorkPals feature together with its subscription service, he said. WorkPals allows users to opt in and see what another colleague may be ordering for the day and at what time, so they can coordinate their lunch plans, he explained.
It is also the only market the start-up is introducing QR code scanning when customers pick up their food orders, as these codes are prevalent here, Mr Clifford said.
MealPal’s Paul Clifford is flanked by Ms Joanne Lu (left) and Mr Reece Wee (right). (Photo: MealPal)
There are currently five staff here, including former HonestBee head of Food Reece Wee who will be the Singapore country manager, and Ms Joanne Lu, the Partnership and Community associate who was formerly from rival provider Flashmeal, he added.
“Singapore has without doubt been our most exciting launch of any other market,” said co-founder Mary Biggins.
“The nuances and unique qualities of the food culture here, how work colleagues cherish their lunchtime as an important social part of the day, and the incredible variety of food options from grain bowls to hawker lor mee means our launch couldn’t have come at a better time.”
IF you’ve got a Singaporean passport, you can easily travel to the most countries in the world.
According to the updated Henley Passport Index, Singapore has climbed back up to be a joint first place with Japan, which held the most powerful passport title since earlier this year.
The new rankings see Japanese and Singaporean passports granting their holders access to 189 nations either visa-free or with visa-on-arrival.
These nations include visa-free travel to Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan only began developing its tourism infrastructure in 2016 when President Shavkat Mirziyoyev took over from his authoritarian predecessor, Islam Karimov.
Japanese and Singaporean passports allow travelers a 30-day visa-free stay in Uzbekistan along with passport holders from Israel, South Korea, Tajikistan, Turkey, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
The shift in rankings during 2018 have been consequential in the index’s 13-year history, as it is the first time either Japan or Singapore has had the most powerful in the world. Previously, Germany held the title since 2013, but they’re now in second place, with visa-free access to only 188 countries.
If you’ve got a Singaporean passport, you can easily travel to the most countries in the world. Source: Alfian Firmana / Reshot
Maintaining joint third place are South Korea, alongside six EU member states: Sweden, Finland, Italy, Spain, Denmark, and France. Portugal, the US, the UK, Norway, Austria, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands share fourth place with visa-free access to 186 countries.
Henley & Partners Group Chairman Dr. Christian H. Kälin said that a passport is much more than a simple travel document: “it is a gateway to international opportunities or a barrier to those same opportunities.”
“The Henley Passport Index enables individuals to assess where they lie on the spectrum of global mobility and helps governments understand the relative value and power of the passports they provide,” he added.
It seems Asian nations, on the whole, are improving their international relations using visa rights. China demonstrated this by opening up its Hainan province to 59 countries which struggle to gain access to other parts of the nation.
China also gained visa-free access to Belarus and visa-on-arrival access to Zimbabwe in June, giving its citizens even more choices of vacation destinations.
Other nations such as the British Virgin Islands are falling over themselves to sign visa agreements with China. This is so they can take a slice of 120 million traveling Chinese citizens who spent US$225 billion abroad last year.
A version of this article originally appeared on our sister site Travel Wire Asia.
