I refer to the article, "Technician fined over negligence leading to delayed rescue in Bukit Batok fatal blaze" (Sept 17).

While it appears that the technician responsible for the incident has been dealt with, there remain questions from the governance and accountability perspectives.

Are there regular checks by the town council to ensure that outsourced services like the fire protection system will work satisfactorily?

How does the town council ensure that service providers have in place the right checks?

What is the overall lesson learnt from this incident? How have vendor selection and process governance by the town council been improved to prevent something similar from happening again?

The authorities must go beyond punishing individuals, and assume proactive ownership of the governance role.

Tan Chor Hoon