18 town councils to get $1.8m in S&CC operating grant after computation discrepancy led to shortfall
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The amounts vary across town councils, ranging from $22,000 to $383,000.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
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SINGAPORE - Eighteen town councils will share a one-off $1.8 million adjustment to their service and conservancy charges (S&CC) operating grant, said the Ministry of National Development (MND) on Dec 29.
This comes after a discrepancy in disbursement computation from financial year 2011 to financial year 2024 led to a shortfall in the amounts disbursed.
In its statement, MND said the amounts vary across town councils, ranging from $22,000 to $383,000.
MND disburses the S&CC operating grant annually to town councils to help defray estate maintenance costs, meet their operating needs and reduce residents’ cost burden. It is given to four-room and smaller flats, with higher grants given for smaller flat types.
It forms part of the over $280 million in grants disbursed each year by MND to support town council operations.
Other grants include the GST subvention grant, lift replacement fund matching grant and lift maintenance grant.
MND said the shortfall was discovered by HDB during an internal review of the grant computation process.
The grant amount for a given financial year is computed using household data before the start of the financial year.
The grant quantum for each disbursement is then adjusted to account for changes in the number of households in the preceding year.
However, “a small number” of HDB flats handed over to town councils in March from financial year 2011 to financial year 2024 were omitted from the computation due to a system error, MND said.
The discrepancy in a particular year is not carried over to the following year as the omitted flats are subsequently accounted for when the grant is next computed.
In total, the shortfall constituted about 0.09 per cent of the S&CC operating grant that was disbursed to the town councils over the 14-year period, MND said, adding that this “would have had minimal impact on their operations”.
The ministry said the discrepancy has since been rectified and HDB has also implemented more robust system checks to prevent such incidents from reoccurring.
These include validation and reconciliation controls as part of the grant computation process.
MND and HDB will complete the disbursement of the underpayments to the affected town councils, together with interest, by Jan 31, 2026.
The grant for Pasir Ris-Changi Town Council was not affected.
