It is not possible to outsource all maintenance work for heavy vehicles and machinery, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said in Parliament yesterday.
Dr Ng was giving a ministerial statement on recent training deaths in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), including that of Singapore actor and operationally ready national serviceman (NSman) Aloysius Pang last month.
Later, in response to a question from Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied GRC), Dr Ng added that the military leadership is relooking its involvement in "non-operational" activities such as the National Day Parade and Army Half Marathon events.
Corporal First Class (CFC) Pang, 28, was an armament technician from the 268th Battalion Singapore Artillery who was carrying out repair works inside the Singapore Self-Propelled Howitzer when he was seriously injured as the gun barrel was lowered.
And last November, CFC Liu Kai, 22, died after a Bionix armoured vehicle reversed and mounted the Land Rover he was driving.
Following the incident that led to CFC Pang's death, members of the public suggested reducing the need for NSmen to perform maintenance of heavy machinery, such as artillery guns and armoured vehicles.
In his speech, Dr Ng said NS technicians are required to be with their units to perform basic maintenance so that the equipment can function during operations.
Maintenance work that is complex and requires specialised tools and equipment is outsourced.
In CFC Pang's case, he was part of his battalion's Forward Maintenance Platoon, made up of national servicemen, said Dr Ng.
The platoon provides basic maintenance support, with more complex maintenance tasks performed by regular technicians, called the Forward Support Group.
After Dr Ng's speech, Mr Singh asked whether "non-operational responsibilities" of NSmen and full-time national servicemen (NSFs) such as organisation of the annual National Day Parade and the Army Half Marathon events could be outsourced, for example, to the private sector.
He asked: "To that extent, is Mindef, as part of this safety review, looking into the time NSFs and NSmen actually have to focus on training, maintenance and other operational responsibilities?"
Dr Ng replied that he agreed with Mr Singh that "we want to be careful as we are moving in this safety journey to allow time for units to focus on safety".
And if there are "administrative aspects" that deter from this, the SAF should be prepared to relook this, he said.
"But this is a command decision. The Chief of Defence Force, commanders, the commanding officers of the units must themselves... decide which is the tempo.
"And you are quite right; for certain activities they have relooked it. I leave it to them to announce what they are not going to do so that it gives them enough bandwidth to focus on safety."
