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Coffee Shop Talk - Let's retrench some Singapore Ministers Subscribe
From: aDirtyDancer Nov-10 8:40 pm
To: ALL (1 of 16)
12573.1
If you look here (http://www.cabinet.gov.sg/CabinetAppointments/index.htm), you can see the beaming smiles of all of our Singapore (male) ministers who draw a combined tens of millions in salary each year.
I say that in these trying times, when money should be spent prudently (why else can you explain that St Nicholas Girls school got no funding to repair leaky damp classrooms?), we should turn to our Cabinet to take the lead in cost-cutting measures. Well, if our premier government-backed bank DBS can retrench 900 staff this early, so we should turn to our Cabinet to see if there’s any ‘wastage’.
There are 20 Cabinet positions. If Singapore is indeed run like a ‘business’, than 20 executive directors seem too top-heavy, no?? Let’s dissect the numbers: 15 of these ministers have Ministry-based portfolios. Since these 15 ministers lead ministries, I suppose they can stay since their job-scopes are well-defined. The Prime Minister does not lead any ministries, but he is the head honcho, and I suppose he gets to stay also.
But what about the 4 ministers without portfolios, but who draw a combined S$10,000,000+ per year of tax-payers’ money? Senior Minister Goh, Minister Mentor LKY, Ministers in the Primie Minister’s office Lim Boon Heng and Lim Swee Say do not seem to have any defined boundaries of work. SM and MM are always travelling; so they might as well be ‘Ambassadors at large’, which would be much cheaper than full Ministers. Lim and Lim are usually making statements on behalf of NTUC or on other local issues, so they might be cheaper as as CEO of these govt-linked agencies, rather than full ministers. In other governments, such ministers would be named unflatteringly as ‘Ministers without portfolio’ (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minister_without_portfolio), and wiki implies they are more appointees for political circumstances rather than practical day-to-day purposes.
Let our Cabinet show us Singaporeans how to tighten our belts by leading the way through ministerial ‘retrenchments’. All ministers without portfolios should be immediately downgraded to lower-paying positions within ministries (either as Ambassadors at large or CEOs), so as to save millions each year. Imagine that; 4 ‘excess’ ministers’ salaries go on to pay for the power bills of the poorest 5% of Singaporeans! That’s true leadership Singaporeans can identify with!!
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From: aDirtyDancer Nov-10 8:40 pm
To: ALL (1 of 16)
12573.1
If you look here (http://www.cabinet.gov.sg/CabinetAppointments/index.htm), you can see the beaming smiles of all of our Singapore (male) ministers who draw a combined tens of millions in salary each year.
I say that in these trying times, when money should be spent prudently (why else can you explain that St Nicholas Girls school got no funding to repair leaky damp classrooms?), we should turn to our Cabinet to take the lead in cost-cutting measures. Well, if our premier government-backed bank DBS can retrench 900 staff this early, so we should turn to our Cabinet to see if there’s any ‘wastage’.
There are 20 Cabinet positions. If Singapore is indeed run like a ‘business’, than 20 executive directors seem too top-heavy, no?? Let’s dissect the numbers: 15 of these ministers have Ministry-based portfolios. Since these 15 ministers lead ministries, I suppose they can stay since their job-scopes are well-defined. The Prime Minister does not lead any ministries, but he is the head honcho, and I suppose he gets to stay also.
But what about the 4 ministers without portfolios, but who draw a combined S$10,000,000+ per year of tax-payers’ money? Senior Minister Goh, Minister Mentor LKY, Ministers in the Primie Minister’s office Lim Boon Heng and Lim Swee Say do not seem to have any defined boundaries of work. SM and MM are always travelling; so they might as well be ‘Ambassadors at large’, which would be much cheaper than full Ministers. Lim and Lim are usually making statements on behalf of NTUC or on other local issues, so they might be cheaper as as CEO of these govt-linked agencies, rather than full ministers. In other governments, such ministers would be named unflatteringly as ‘Ministers without portfolio’ (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minister_without_portfolio), and wiki implies they are more appointees for political circumstances rather than practical day-to-day purposes.
Let our Cabinet show us Singaporeans how to tighten our belts by leading the way through ministerial ‘retrenchments’. All ministers without portfolios should be immediately downgraded to lower-paying positions within ministries (either as Ambassadors at large or CEOs), so as to save millions each year. Imagine that; 4 ‘excess’ ministers’ salaries go on to pay for the power bills of the poorest 5% of Singaporeans! That’s true leadership Singaporeans can identify with!!
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