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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - PAPee & their exhorbitant SALARIEs!!!!!</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead vAlign=top><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>Fkapore <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>3:07 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 4) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>32669.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>Better benchmark needed for Ministers’ salaries
Posted by Ravi Philemon on May 4, 2010 4 Comments
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If one truly understands how the human psyche works, the person would know that offering a multi-million dollar pay packet may not be the smartest thing to do in trying to attract the best brains to lead the country.
The subject of executive compensation is hotly debated in the corporate world, and in line with this, the topic of ministerial salaries demands a re-visit, for the sake of national interest.
Although the salaries paid to ministers, are but a very small fraction of the total government spending and it is also good practice to benchmark salaries paid to ministers to performances, it is narrow-scoped to continue pegging it to the gross domestic product (GDP); because the GDP cannot accurately measure the gains from economic growth and the sustainability of that growth.
A more comprehensive range of key performance indexes (KPI) need to be devised if Ministers’ salaries are to be linked to performances.
These KPIs should include comprehensive financial (e.g. standard deviation and median earning) as well as non-financial (e.g. population happiness index) indicators.
The KPI’s should also include lagging (e.g. GDP growth) as well as leading indicators (e.g. job satisfaction of PSC scholars deputised to teach in Government / Independent schools).
The measurement of these KPIs must be audited, attested and the full results published through the government gazette.
The salary for each Minister in government office, has got to be averaged using these indexes and linked to the pay-packet of office-holders in G8 economies.
This methodology if adopted will be a better measure for paying the Ministers, as we have to compare ‘apples with apples’ and should stop comparing the earnings of Ministers with that of top doctors, lawyers and other professionals.
Politics is as much about perception as much as it is about reality.
With its well intentioned but short sighted monetary compensation policy for Ministers, the government of Singapore is sending a wrong signal to the society-at-large.
The people will have no issue with well deserving office holders drawing top dollars if it was better benchmarked and explained properly.
National Trade Union Congress’s chief Mr Lim Swee Say in supporting the government’s push for productivity said recently that “Cheaper countries are getting better and better countries getting cheaper”.
This drive to boost productivity should apply to the top leadership in the government, as much as it applies to any other worker in Singapore.
The government of Singapore too must become cheaper, better and faster.
And the very first step in becoming a “cheaper, better and faster” government, would be in asking, “does Singapore being such a small country, need so many Members of Parliament and Ministers?”
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Posted by Ravi Philemon on May 4, 2010 4 Comments
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If one truly understands how the human psyche works, the person would know that offering a multi-million dollar pay packet may not be the smartest thing to do in trying to attract the best brains to lead the country.
The subject of executive compensation is hotly debated in the corporate world, and in line with this, the topic of ministerial salaries demands a re-visit, for the sake of national interest.
Although the salaries paid to ministers, are but a very small fraction of the total government spending and it is also good practice to benchmark salaries paid to ministers to performances, it is narrow-scoped to continue pegging it to the gross domestic product (GDP); because the GDP cannot accurately measure the gains from economic growth and the sustainability of that growth.
A more comprehensive range of key performance indexes (KPI) need to be devised if Ministers’ salaries are to be linked to performances.
These KPIs should include comprehensive financial (e.g. standard deviation and median earning) as well as non-financial (e.g. population happiness index) indicators.
The KPI’s should also include lagging (e.g. GDP growth) as well as leading indicators (e.g. job satisfaction of PSC scholars deputised to teach in Government / Independent schools).
The measurement of these KPIs must be audited, attested and the full results published through the government gazette.
The salary for each Minister in government office, has got to be averaged using these indexes and linked to the pay-packet of office-holders in G8 economies.
This methodology if adopted will be a better measure for paying the Ministers, as we have to compare ‘apples with apples’ and should stop comparing the earnings of Ministers with that of top doctors, lawyers and other professionals.
Politics is as much about perception as much as it is about reality.
With its well intentioned but short sighted monetary compensation policy for Ministers, the government of Singapore is sending a wrong signal to the society-at-large.
The people will have no issue with well deserving office holders drawing top dollars if it was better benchmarked and explained properly.
National Trade Union Congress’s chief Mr Lim Swee Say in supporting the government’s push for productivity said recently that “Cheaper countries are getting better and better countries getting cheaper”.
This drive to boost productivity should apply to the top leadership in the government, as much as it applies to any other worker in Singapore.
The government of Singapore too must become cheaper, better and faster.
And the very first step in becoming a “cheaper, better and faster” government, would be in asking, “does Singapore being such a small country, need so many Members of Parliament and Ministers?”
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