Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Pushing the buck around

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Pushing the buck around

An investor, who was misled into investing a large sum of money in land banking plots made a complaint to his Member of Parliament. He provided documentation to support his complaint. The MP wrote to Monetary Authority of Singapore who referred the investor to the Commercial Affairs Department. He met with an officer of CAD who told him that they have received several similar complaints and were investigating the matter. Nothing was heard from CAD for the past two months.

The investor asked me what to do. He said that one party is pushing the buck to another party and nobody is interested to take charge of this matter. I wondered why the CAD did not wish to contact the complainant and get more facts. The complainants are kept in the dark. This seemed to be a habit in Singapore.

I asked the complainant to take the matter up with his elected MP again. I hope that the MP will follow up on this matter, rather than let sad state of affairs continue.

Tan Kin Lian

9 comments:

Anonymous said...: REX Comments as follows,

This is a simple illustration of the principle that some people (e.g. with iron ricebowls) are "less hard striving". They don't need to work very hard, just follow the rules, make routine reports, and collect moderate, not too high salary, very safe. Passion and commitment to principles, is a rare commodity.

The normal salaried workers in the private sector generally work harder and are more hard striving, but get the brunt of the blame in these latter days.

REX; December 31, 2009 11:10 AM
Unknown said...: Singapore wants to be a financial hub and let in numerous financial products. Some are toxic and some are clearly benefiting the financial vendors.

While Singapore strives to :
(i) fight against virus;
(ii) fight against pirated goods;
(iii) fight against drugs;

Clearly we are not good at fighting against dubious financial product.; December 31, 2009 11:10 AM
Anonymous said...: Actually many people comments the best job in the world is to be the civil servents in Signapore. They are highly paid without take any risk. Not like the COE of the big company they try to benchmark, they do not need to take the risk for failure as we never heard any failure or apologize by Goverment. So they conclude, to push the children to be Civil servents of Signpaore is the best investment, no risk, high return.; December 31, 2009 11:29 AM
Anonymous said...: MAS is a Taichi master and so are the other ministers; December 31, 2009 11:56 AM
Anonymous said...: This is what our "elite" system created. Push your children to study and get a scholarship and then join the civil service. Once you are in the "elite" system", just protect your ass, i.e. don't be gangho or take risks. As long as one don't make any severe mistakes during his stint, he will be promoted to the next level. In such a system, there is no incentive to do anything other than stick to the protocol. I don't understand why this system has not been changed or abolished after almost 40 yrs ? It had served it's purpose during our foundation year but is no longer effective but instead breed complacency and this filters downward to the rank-and-file. I travel quite often, and had seen immigration officer (holding the rank of a sergeant) at T2 playing cross word puzzle while on duty at the check-in counter instead of staying alert to terrorists or criminals.

Although there is an attempt to bring in people from the private sector in the last decade which is very good, I think it is not really effective. Because most if not all of them take the MP's job as part-time while still doing their usual work outside. One servant CANNOT serve two masters ! I admired the deidcation of Chiam See Tong when he quit his full time lawyer job and devote 100% effort to serve. That probably explained why he will never lose Potong Pasir, unless he choose to. Poeple are touched by his SINCERITY and COMMITMENTS. Why other MPs cannot do that ? Instead, we have so many people with ambitious and ambigious titles, mayors, GRC, etc. Who is responsible and accountable for what, I don't know? Nowadays when there is an event, you will see a big turnout, minister + MP + don't know who, etc. It's a waste of tax payers' money and our precious resources. It will stressed out more people than necessary. Their time can be used for some soul searching, thinking about policies or helping the real needy people or how to fix certain real problems from people's feedback. I have been asking myself this question for the past few years.

Above are just my observations and opinions, with no other intention but for the love of this country.; December 31, 2009 1:43 PM
StFual said...: The UK just set up the National Fraud Authority due to the high cost of fraud, and to the difficulty of reporting it. This is from the NFA report on fraud

Confusion
Some victims are confused over to whom to report the fraud. This might be made worse if they go
to the police and are told it is a ‘civil matter’ or to speak to another agency, who in turn then may refer them elsewhere or to another body.

Ambiguity of fraud
Some frauds are designed to be legally ambiguous. This means once the victim realises it is a scam, it may be difficult to secure the interest of the law enforcement community. Some scams, such as investment frauds, are ambiguous in the sense some victims think it was just a bad investment rather than a scam.

Seems like same issue exists in Singapore.; December 31, 2009 3:07 PM
Anonymous said...: Chicken increase in price, if your pocket is deep enough, you get a feast.
If not you can eat fish.

But wait, fishmonger say they going to increase price because cost increase due to recent surge in rental!

"Is supply and demand!"

Ok great! you open the other gate!

Be thankful soon it will become prawn.; December 31, 2009 4:08 PM
Anonymous said...: Bank Negara Malaysia Raids Walton International Property Group (M) Sdn Bhd

On 5 March 2009, Bank Negara Malaysia raided Walton International Property Group (M) Sdn Bhd under the Exchange Control Act (ECA) 1953. The raids were simultaneously conducted at the premises of the company in Kuala Lumpur (W. Persekutuan), Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) and Kuching ( Sarawak ) following complaints received from members of the public. Relevant documents of the company were seized for purpose of the investigation.

Members of the public are advised to be cautious of this type of land banking schemes promoted by the company. Any elements of deposit-taking activities and public offerings such as ‘interest schemes' or investment in real estates schemes (better known as ‘real estate investment trusts' - REITs) should be referred to the appropriate authorities such as Bank Negara Malaysia, Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia and Suruhanjaya Sekuriti. Members of the public are also advised to use lawful remittance channels when making payment or sending money overseas. A list of legitimate remittance channels can be referred at the Bank Negara Malaysia's website (www.bnm.gov.my ) for either licensed banks or licensed non-bank remittance operators.

For further enquiries, members of the public can contact Bank Negara Malaysia at the following contact points:

Laman Informasi Nasihat dan Khidmat (BNMLINK)
(Walk-in Customer Service Centre)
Ground Floor, Block D
Jalan Dato' Onn
50480 Kuala Lumpur

BNMTELELINK (Customer Service Call Centre)
1-300-88-5465 or
E-mail: bnmtelelink@bnm.gov.my

Bank Negara Malaysia
6 March 2009

Source: http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=8&pg=14&ac=1779

Walton International Group clarifies Bank Negara probe

March 09, 2009

KUALA LUMPUR: Walton International Property Group (M) Sdn Bhd said on March 9, 2009 that it does not distribute real estate investment trusts (REITS), nor does it offer deposit-taking or interest schemes.

For details please visit http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/business-news/1568-walton-international-group-clarifies-bank-negara-probe.html

SSM issues Compound Notices to three companies

June 19, 2009

KUALA LUMPUR: The Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM - Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia) has issued compound notices to Profitable Plots Sdn Bhd, Edgeworth Properties (M) Sdn Bhd and UK Land International (M) Sdn Bhd for contravening section 91(1) of the Companies Act 1965.

For details please visit http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=419129; December 31, 2009 6:09 PM
Anonymous said...: Refering to the comment just before mine.

Just had a read of the articles above and noticed that one company was raided using the Exchange Control Act (ECA) 1953. The other 3 were raided using the Companies Act 1965.

Regarding the Exchange Control Act, Malaysia has been quite tight on any money moving out of the country ever since the 1997 crisis.

Just looking at the names of the Acts, one company was raided due to the money they were moving out of Malaysia. However, the real concern is for the other 3 companies, because if the Companies Act is used, there is a cause for concern on their business model or investment? I just can't seem to find any follow-up news from the government after the raids. Perhaps, someone familiar with the law comment? I had a quick search on the Malaysian Companies Act 1965, and it seems that i'm right, it is used for investigations on the company's activities.; January 29, 2010 11:56 AM