Monday, May 28, 2018

Be frugal in spending public money

An important quality of a government is to spend public money carefully.

They have to be frugal. They have to ensure that the money spent is necessary and produce valuable result.

If they are frugal, they will not have to raise heavy tax and other revenues that have to be borne by the citizens.

The first generation of leaders of Singapore has this frugal habit. By being frugal they were able to develop Singapore and remain competitive.

The current generation of leaders have lost this habit. They spend money wastefully. They spend billions of dollars here and there on questionable projects.

They spend a lot of money on posh buildings, expensive computer systems and other luxuries. They forgot that the money has to be taken from workers who earn low pay through GST and other taxes.

They pay high salaries for themselves which are out of proportion to the average income of the workers.

Due to the profligate spending, we are now the most costly city in the world. We are also highly uncompetitive in many areas.

What is the best way to wake up this government and restore them to the habit of frugality? One way is to change the government. But is there any other way?

Tan Kin Lian

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