In a first, all 17 town councils get top marks in latest estate management report
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MND said the scores showed that town councils’ performance had improved compared with FY2022.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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SINGAPORE – All town councils received top ratings in the latest town council management report released by the Ministry of National Development (MND) on June 27.
In a first since the Government started issuing the reports in 2010, the 17 town councils here received green ratings in all four categories assessed – estate cleanliness, estate maintenance, lift performance, and service and conservancy charges (S&CC) arrears management.
The latest operational report covers the 2023 financial year (FY) from April 2023 to March 2024. A separate report that assesses town councils’ corporate governance and internal controls over the same period will be published at the end of 2024.
MND said the scores showed that town councils’ performance had improved since FY2022. In the previous report, Sengkang Town Council had received an amber rating for S&CC arrears management,
In the report, town councils are given green, amber or red ratings across the four categories based on measurable and objective criteria submitted by them and through the Housing Board’s inspections of estates.
To get a green rating for estate cleanliness, for instance, a town council must have fewer than four counts of cleanliness observations per block. These include the presence of stain, litter, bulky refuse and graffiti, with the counts weighted according to severity.
A town council gets a green rating for arrears management if less than 40 per cent of the town’s monthly S&CC is overdue, and fewer than four in 100 households have been in arrears for three months or longer.
While all town councils were banded green for cleanliness in 2024, stain and litter continued to be the top issue, making up about two-thirds of observations across all estates in this category.
Under estate maintenance, obstruction of common areas continued to be the main issue, accounting for roughly half of maintenance observations flagged in FY2023.
MND introduced the town council management report in 2009 to provide residents with objective information about the key areas of estate management and help them engage with their town councils in these areas to improve towns over time, according to its website.
Since 2012, the reports had covered town councils’ performance in corporate governance as well. This aspect of town management has been hived off into a separate report since 2022, which MND had said was to allow for more focused and timely reporting on different aspects of town councils’ work.
MND said on June 27 that the corporate governance report for FY2023 will be put out in December 2024, after it has received and reviewed town councils’ audited financial statements and their auditors’ reports.
