{"id":21192,"date":"2025-12-19T03:25:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T19:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=21192"},"modified":"2025-12-19T03:25:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T19:25:36","slug":"all-town-councils-get-top-ratings-for-governance-except-amk-in-last-mnd-review-before-ge2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=21192","title":{"rendered":"All town councils get top ratings for governance except AMK, in last MND review before GE2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE \u2013\u00a0<!-- -->All town councils, except Ang Mo Kio, received a green rating for their corporate governance in the latest town council management report. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Ang Mo Kio Town Council (AMKTC) received an amber rating, the second band out of three, as it had two administrative oversights, said the Ministry of National Development (MND) on Dec 18.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">It did not publish the changes to its re-appointed <!-- -->vice-chairperson<!-- --> and members in the Government e-Gazette by the statutory deadline. It also did not complete the required funds transfers to two of its bank accounts, including its sinking fund, by the statutory deadline for the first quarter of the 2024 financial year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The town council retrospectively published the changes and transferred the funds, noted the report, which covered the financial year from April 2024 to March 2025. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The latest report was the last performance review of 17 town councils ahead of the 2025 General Election, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/multimedia\/graphics\/2025\/05\/singapore-general-election-ge2025-live-results\/index.html?shell=&amp;ref=inline-article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">was held on May 3.<\/p>\n<p><\/a> It reflected the town councils\u2019 performance on their financial statements, auditors\u2019 reports and compliance with the Town Councils Act and rules over the last financial year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/politics\/two-new-town-councils-formed-in-jalan-kayu-punggol-after-ge2025-total-19-tcs?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">Two new town councils have since been formed<\/p>\n<p><\/a> in Jalan Kayu and Punggol following the election and the redrawing of boundaries, bringing the total up to 19. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In giving AMKTC an amber rating, MND had identified two instances of non-compliance with the Town Councils Act and the Town Councils Financial Rules. AMKTC covered estates in Ang Mo Kio GRC and Kebun Baru and Yio Chu Kang SMCs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cAs the non-compliances were cases of administrative oversight that have since been rectified, they were considered as two low-severity observations,\u201d said MND in the report. The lowest possible performance band is red.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Kebun Baru MP Henry Kwek, who chairs AMKTC, said clearer and more stringent processes have been put in place to prevent the lapses from occurring again. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cWe take this seriously and have reviewed our standard operating procedures to address the lapses and strengthen our processes to meet the standards expected of AMKTC,\u201d said Mr Kwek. He added that the town council \u201cremains committed to upholding high standards of governance, diligence, and operational discipline\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Three other town councils \u2013 Nee Soon, Pasir Ris-Punggol and Sengkang \u2013 were flagged for not obtaining the Housing Board\u2019s consent prior to commencing works on common property. HDB\u2019s retrospective consent was sought and given. As all these infractions were of low severity, the town councils were still banded green, stated the report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">MND also<!-- --> <!-- -->found that all town councils generally reported surpluses for the 2024 financial year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cBy maintaining a sustainable financial position, town councils can continue to carry out more town improvement projects that benefit residents,\u201d said MND. <\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">It added that the Government will continue to monitor town councils\u2019 financial positions and work with them to ensure their long-term financial sustainability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In the 2024 report, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/all-town-councils-get-top-banding-for-governance-except-bishan-toa-payoh?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular inline\" data-testid=\"paragraph-test-id\">Bishan-Toa Payoh Town Council<\/p>\n<p><\/a>\u00a0was singled out with an amber rating for not obtaining approval from the authorities before commencing work on three projects and disbursing funds for these. It received a green rating in the latest review.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Dec 18 report is the second part of an annual report released by MND. The first part of the report, released mid-year, rates their performance on operations such as estate cleanliness and maintenance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-body-baseline-regular text-primary\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">All town councils received green ratings in the\u00a0June\u00a0report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"tags-test-id\">\n<p><button data-testid=\"button-test-id\" class=\"layer-one border-default border interactive-button text-primary disabled:layer-disabled hover:disabled:layer-disabled default\" aria-label=\"button for Town councils\"><span class=\"font-button-md-semibold\">Town councils<\/span><\/button><button data-testid=\"button-test-id\" class=\"layer-one border-default border interactive-button text-primary disabled:layer-disabled hover:disabled:layer-disabled default\" aria-label=\"button for Ang Mo Kio\"><span class=\"font-button-md-semibold\">Ang Mo Kio<\/span><\/button><button data-testid=\"button-test-id\" class=\"layer-one border-default border interactive-button text-primary disabled:layer-disabled hover:disabled:layer-disabled default\" aria-label=\"button for Ministry of National Development\"><span class=\"font-button-md-semibold\">Ministry of National Development<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/all-town-councils-got-top-ratings-for-governance-except-ang-mo-kio-in-last-mnd-review-before-ge2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SINGAPORE \u2013\u00a0All town councils, except Ang Mo Kio, received a green rating for their corporate governance in the latest town council management report. Ang Mo&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}