Other subsidiary duties include posing for the camera and pretending to help out. Take it from Mayor of the South West District Low Yen Ling who shows you how to earn $660K effortlessly.
In the case of Denise Phua, she takes care of residents living in the Central Singapore District and according to CDC website, the CDC serves close to 1 million residents living there. Not much is said about the role of a mayor.
A PAP mayor's main job function is to lick Pinky's balls clean. There you go.
Speaking in Parliament, Mr Singh highlighted that many Singaporeans were of the view that the salaries of mayors were “outrageous” and not “commensurate with the mayor’s roles and functions today”.
The bugbear concerning mayors and the CDCs are not new. Indeed, questions have been asked as towhether or not mayors have been paid handsomely just for job duplication with elected members of parliament (MP).
Questions have also been previously raised with regards to the eye-watering salaries that such mayors are paid. This was also an issue that was raised by WP MP Leon Perera in the past.
Yet despite the mounting criticism, the Mayor of Central Singapore District who is also a MP for Jalan Besar GRC, Denise Phua, rejected Mr Singh’s questioning and accused him of politicizing the issue. She further labelled Mr Singh’s suggestions that CCCs or grassroots volunteers could run the voucher scheme as “ignorant of or insensitive to the realities on the ground”.
London mayor earns S$284K to take care of 9 million
According to the 2012 White Paper on government salaries, mayors are paid an annual salary of S$660,000. This is in addition to their annual MP allowance of $192,500.
Meanwhile, the present London mayor, Sadiq Khan, is found to be only earning an annual salary of £152,734 or S$284,000. In fact, he volunteered to take an immediate 10 percent pay cut to his salary last year, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Wikipedia, as at 2019, London has a population of 8,961,989 or about 9.0 million. That is to say, the London mayor is paid a salary of only S$284,000 to take care of a population of 9 million in London.
The Mayor of London is given specific powers and duties and a general power to promote economic, social and environmental improvements in London. The Mayor has a duty to set out plans and policies for London covering transport, planning and development, housing, economic development and regeneration, culture health inequalities and a range of environmental issues including climate change and air quality.
The Mayor has a number of other duties relating to culture and tourism, including responsibility for Trafalgar and Parliament Squares. The Mayor also sets an annual budget for the Greater London Authority (GLA) and for the GLA Group, which includes Transport for London, The Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade.
In the case of Denise Phua, she takes care of residents living in the Central Singapore District and according to CDC website, the CDC serves close to 1 million residents living there. Not much is said about the role of a mayor.
That is to say, Denise Phua is paid a salary of S$660,000 at least — not including her MP pay of S$192,500 — or 2.3 times more than the London’s mayor just to take care of close to 1 million residents in the Central District of Singapore.
Hence, purely from an economic point of view, wouldn’t it be cheaper for Singaporean taxpayers to hire the London mayor to replace Denise Phua instead?
Not to mention that Singapore has five mayors such as Ms Phua, perhaps 1 London mayor alone with a salary of S$284,000 is sufficient to oversee a population of 5.7 million in Singapore since he already has the necessary experience to oversee a population of 9 million in London?
The feverish discussion currently raging in Singapore about how useful the 5 PAP appointed Mayors are provide a useful starting point for examining what the proper role of a Mayor should be and whether this should be a part time job commanding an obscene annual salary of $660,000.
We must remember that this discussion has been simmering for years and did not arise simply because of what Pritam Singh brought up in Parliament earlier this week.
In most democratic countries, a Mayor is the head of the municipal or local government. This position makes sense in a medium size to big country, especially one where there is a Federal system, where there is separation between the National and State or Provincial governments. So Mayors are common in the European and American democracies.
A common denominator in true democracies is that Mayors are elected and are not part of the National Parliament or Congress.They are elected in Mayoral or Municipal elections. Examples of well known Mayors include Boris Johnson (current British PM), who was the Mayor of London for 2 terms and Jacques Chirac (former President Of France) who was a long serving Mayor of Paris. Both were elected to their positions of Mayor and both were never Members of Parliament when they were Mayors. Both ran big cities and had their hands full doing a full time job.
In Singapore, the position of Mayor appears to me to be an add on (or tambah) position!
The 1st qualification appears to be that you must be a PAP MP. Never mind if you are not a full time Mayor. You can double hat or triple hat and be a Mininster Of State plus an MP on TOP of being Mayor. But you are still entitled to an obscene salary of $660,000 a year besides your other salaries or “allowances” for wearing other hats.
That this Mayor’s position cannot be considered serious is demonstrated by the fact that 4 out of the 5 incumbents are part-time Mayors. And indeed one has to query why the position of Mayor is needed when we have so many Ministries, agencies and other bodies which can carry out the same work which the Mayors do. I wasn’t the least bit impressed by the work done by the Mayors which Denise Phua spelt out in Parliament earlier this week.
And it was facile for Denise to rebut Pritam by suggesting that he should not politicise the issue since he was granted and accepted the office of Leader of the Opppsition. Is she seriously suggesting that the superfluous office of Mayor is the equivalent of the Office of Leader of the Opposition, which has the vital constitutional role of bringing the government of the day to account?
When I read Denise’s rebuttal to Pritam, it appeared to me that the sum total of her argument was that he should “shut up” and be grateful for the patronage of the Prime Minister in giving him his current Office.
If I was in Pritam’s shoes, I would have lambasted Denise for insulting the intelligence of the Singapore electorate.
Mayors have no place in a small country like Singapore. If they insist on having Mayors, then do the decent thing and ask all these Mayors to resign from Parliament and be candidates in Mayoral elections! Also, why do we need 5 Mayors when cities such as London, Paris and Shanghai, which have much bigger populations and land areas, have only one?
The quality of debate in Parliament which came from the PAP side this week (including Alex Yam, Ong Ye Kung, Gan Siow Huang, Heng Swee Keat, Carrie Tan and of course Denise Phua) was so dismal, you have to fear for the future of our country.
"Ms Phua also thanked Mr Singh for raising the subject of CDCs, adding that perhaps the biggest mistake the councils made was not to have better publicised the work they do."
According to the 2012 White Paper on government salaries, mayors are paid an annual salary of $660,000. This is in addition to their annual MP allowance of $192,500, not including bonuses.
Many Singaporeans feel CDC mayor salaries are 'outrageous': Pritam Singh
SINGAPORE — Many Singaporeans are of the view that the salaries of Community Development Council (CDC) mayors are "outrageous", mainly because they are not perceived to commensurate with the mayor's roles and functions today, said Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh on Wednesday (24 February).
"Other Singaporeans are of the view that the CDCs' functions can be carried out by other existing entities, or by ministries and statutory boards, including other organisations under the People's Association, particularly since the social footprint of each CDC is uneven, and can differ greatly compared to another," claimed Singh.
"Yet others simply don't know what the CDCs do."
There are currently five district mayors - Low Yen Ling (South West), Denise Phua (Central), Fahmi Aliman (South East), Alex Yam (North West) and Desmond Choo (North East).
According to the 2012 White Paper on government salaries, mayors are paid an annual salary of $660,000. This is in addition to their annual MP allowance of $192,500, not including bonuses.
Speaking during the parliamentary debate on Budget 2021, the Workers' Party chief noted that $20 million was allocated to the CDCs in the Unity Budget last year, and this increased to $75 million a month later in the Resilience Budget. "This injection is equal to all the reserves of the CDCs put together, according to the CDCs' FY 2018 annual report."
The Aljunied Member of Parliament called for a "serious review" of the necessity of having full-time CDC mayors, suggesting that bodies such as the Citizens Consultative Committees (CCC) are more closely connected to the ground. He noted, for example, that representatives of market and merchants association are commonly represented on the CCCs, and there is one CCC for each ward or constituency.
It would follow, said Singh, that the CDCs' role in the CDC voucher scheme is potentially "superfluous". The 43-year-old added, "So it would appear to me as if the government is trying to find some way to make the CDCs relevant, in view of their relative absence in the public mindshare."
Last Tuesday, the government announced a $900 million Household Support package for families in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Under the package, about 1.3 million households will be given $100 CDC vouchers, with an additional $150 million grant to the CDC for this. Recipients can use the vouchers at heartland shops and hawker centres.
Singh asked the government to clarify if the CDC vouchers can also be used at supermarket chains such as Giant, Sheng Siong and NTUC FairPrice. He suggested that the current scheme be focused solely on heartland shops and hawkers, such as local provision shops, Chinese sinsehs and fruit sellers
"There's a risk that if this is not done, the bulk of the vouchers would be spent at supermarkets like NTUC, Fairprice and bypass the heartland shops. If the major supermarket chains are involved, the scheme could effectively mirror a cash top up."
He also asked how much of the $150 million has been allocated for the CDC voucher scheme per se, and how much constitutes the amount allocated for the administration of the program.
Other subsidiary duties include posing for the camera and pretending to help out. Take it from Mayor of the South West District Low Yen Ling who shows you how to earn $660K effortlessly.
A PAP mayor's main job function is to lick Pinky's balls clean. There you go.
London mayor earns S$284K to oversee 9m while Denise Phua earn S$660K to oversee 1m
Last Wednesday (24 Feb) in Parliament, Leader of the Opposition, Workers’ Party (WP) Pritam Singh, raised questions in relation to the need for mayors and the role of the Community Development Councils (CDCs) run by them (‘Mayor Denise Phua’s rebuttal of Pritam Singh is hypocritical and disingenuous, given she benefits from high mayoral salary‘).
Speaking in Parliament, Mr Singh highlighted that many Singaporeans were of the view that the salaries of mayors were “outrageous” and not “commensurate with the mayor’s roles and functions today”.
The bugbear concerning mayors and the CDCs are not new. Indeed, questions have been asked as towhether or not mayors have been paid handsomely just for job duplication with elected members of parliament (MP).
Questions have also been previously raised with regards to the eye-watering salaries that such mayors are paid. This was also an issue that was raised by WP MP Leon Perera in the past.
Yet despite the mounting criticism, the Mayor of Central Singapore District who is also a MP for Jalan Besar GRC, Denise Phua, rejected Mr Singh’s questioning and accused him of politicizing the issue. She further labelled Mr Singh’s suggestions that CCCs or grassroots volunteers could run the voucher scheme as “ignorant of or insensitive to the realities on the ground”.
London mayor earns S$284K to take care of 9 million
According to the 2012 White Paper on government salaries, mayors are paid an annual salary of S$660,000. This is in addition to their annual MP allowance of $192,500.
Meanwhile, the present London mayor, Sadiq Khan, is found to be only earning an annual salary of £152,734 or S$284,000. In fact, he volunteered to take an immediate 10 percent pay cut to his salary last year, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Wikipedia, as at 2019, London has a population of 8,961,989 or about 9.0 million. That is to say, the London mayor is paid a salary of only S$284,000 to take care of a population of 9 million in London.
The Mayor of London is given specific powers and duties and a general power to promote economic, social and environmental improvements in London. The Mayor has a duty to set out plans and policies for London covering transport, planning and development, housing, economic development and regeneration, culture health inequalities and a range of environmental issues including climate change and air quality.
The Mayor has a number of other duties relating to culture and tourism, including responsibility for Trafalgar and Parliament Squares. The Mayor also sets an annual budget for the Greater London Authority (GLA) and for the GLA Group, which includes Transport for London, The Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade.
In the case of Denise Phua, she takes care of residents living in the Central Singapore District and according to CDC website, the CDC serves close to 1 million residents living there. Not much is said about the role of a mayor.
That is to say, Denise Phua is paid a salary of S$660,000 at least — not including her MP pay of S$192,500 — or 2.3 times more than the London’s mayor just to take care of close to 1 million residents in the Central District of Singapore.
Hence, purely from an economic point of view, wouldn’t it be cheaper for Singaporean taxpayers to hire the London mayor to replace Denise Phua instead?
Not to mention that Singapore has five mayors such as Ms Phua, perhaps 1 London mayor alone with a salary of S$284,000 is sufficient to oversee a population of 5.7 million in Singapore since he already has the necessary experience to oversee a population of 9 million in London?
https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2021/03/02/london-mayor-earns-s284k-to-oversee-9m-while-denise-phua-earn-s660k-to-oversee-1m/
61% of Sinkies voted for part of their taxes to go toward paying obscene mayors' salaries, therefore I don't want to hear any complaints.
"What Is The Role Of A Mayor? " - LIM TEAN
The feverish discussion currently raging in Singapore about how useful the 5 PAP appointed Mayors are provide a useful starting point for examining what the proper role of a Mayor should be and whether this should be a part time job commanding an obscene annual salary of $660,000.
We must remember that this discussion has been simmering for years and did not arise simply because of what Pritam Singh brought up in Parliament earlier this week.
In most democratic countries, a Mayor is the head of the municipal or local government. This position makes sense in a medium size to big country, especially one where there is a Federal system, where there is separation between the National and State or Provincial governments. So Mayors are common in the European and American democracies.
A common denominator in true democracies is that Mayors are elected and are not part of the National Parliament or Congress.They are elected in Mayoral or Municipal elections. Examples of well known Mayors include Boris Johnson (current British PM), who was the Mayor of London for 2 terms and Jacques Chirac (former President Of France) who was a long serving Mayor of Paris. Both were elected to their positions of Mayor and both were never Members of Parliament when they were Mayors. Both ran big cities and had their hands full doing a full time job.
In Singapore, the position of Mayor appears to me to be an add on (or tambah) position!
The 1st qualification appears to be that you must be a PAP MP. Never mind if you are not a full time Mayor. You can double hat or triple hat and be a Mininster Of State plus an MP on TOP of being Mayor. But you are still entitled to an obscene salary of $660,000 a year besides your other salaries or “allowances” for wearing other hats.
That this Mayor’s position cannot be considered serious is demonstrated by the fact that 4 out of the 5 incumbents are part-time Mayors. And indeed one has to query why the position of Mayor is needed when we have so many Ministries, agencies and other bodies which can carry out the same work which the Mayors do. I wasn’t the least bit impressed by the work done by the Mayors which Denise Phua spelt out in Parliament earlier this week.
And it was facile for Denise to rebut Pritam by suggesting that he should not politicise the issue since he was granted and accepted the office of Leader of the Opppsition. Is she seriously suggesting that the superfluous office of Mayor is the equivalent of the Office of Leader of the Opposition, which has the vital constitutional role of bringing the government of the day to account?
When I read Denise’s rebuttal to Pritam, it appeared to me that the sum total of her argument was that he should “shut up” and be grateful for the patronage of the Prime Minister in giving him his current Office.
If I was in Pritam’s shoes, I would have lambasted Denise for insulting the intelligence of the Singapore electorate.
Mayors have no place in a small country like Singapore. If they insist on having Mayors, then do the decent thing and ask all these Mayors to resign from Parliament and be candidates in Mayoral elections! Also, why do we need 5 Mayors when cities such as London, Paris and Shanghai, which have much bigger populations and land areas, have only one?
The quality of debate in Parliament which came from the PAP side this week (including Alex Yam, Ong Ye Kung, Gan Siow Huang, Heng Swee Keat, Carrie Tan and of course Denise Phua) was so dismal, you have to fear for the future of our country.
"Ms Phua also thanked Mr Singh for raising the subject of CDCs, adding that perhaps the biggest mistake the councils made was not to have better publicised the work they do."
Oh well, this isn't unexpected.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/politics/budget-debate-mayor-denise-phua-rebuts-pritam-singh-on-relevance-of-cdcs-and
Many Singaporeans feel CDC mayor salaries are 'outrageous': Pritam Singh
SINGAPORE — Many Singaporeans are of the view that the salaries of Community Development Council (CDC) mayors are "outrageous", mainly because they are not perceived to commensurate with the mayor's roles and functions today, said Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh on Wednesday (24 February).
"Other Singaporeans are of the view that the CDCs' functions can be carried out by other existing entities, or by ministries and statutory boards, including other organisations under the People's Association, particularly since the social footprint of each CDC is uneven, and can differ greatly compared to another," claimed Singh.
"Yet others simply don't know what the CDCs do."
There are currently five district mayors - Low Yen Ling (South West), Denise Phua (Central), Fahmi Aliman (South East), Alex Yam (North West) and Desmond Choo (North East).
According to the 2012 White Paper on government salaries, mayors are paid an annual salary of $660,000. This is in addition to their annual MP allowance of $192,500, not including bonuses.
Speaking during the parliamentary debate on Budget 2021, the Workers' Party chief noted that $20 million was allocated to the CDCs in the Unity Budget last year, and this increased to $75 million a month later in the Resilience Budget. "This injection is equal to all the reserves of the CDCs put together, according to the CDCs' FY 2018 annual report."
The Aljunied Member of Parliament called for a "serious review" of the necessity of having full-time CDC mayors, suggesting that bodies such as the Citizens Consultative Committees (CCC) are more closely connected to the ground. He noted, for example, that representatives of market and merchants association are commonly represented on the CCCs, and there is one CCC for each ward or constituency.
It would follow, said Singh, that the CDCs' role in the CDC voucher scheme is potentially "superfluous". The 43-year-old added, "So it would appear to me as if the government is trying to find some way to make the CDCs relevant, in view of their relative absence in the public mindshare."
Last Tuesday, the government announced a $900 million Household Support package for families in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Under the package, about 1.3 million households will be given $100 CDC vouchers, with an additional $150 million grant to the CDC for this. Recipients can use the vouchers at heartland shops and hawker centres.
Singh asked the government to clarify if the CDC vouchers can also be used at supermarket chains such as Giant, Sheng Siong and NTUC FairPrice. He suggested that the current scheme be focused solely on heartland shops and hawkers, such as local provision shops, Chinese sinsehs and fruit sellers
"There's a risk that if this is not done, the bulk of the vouchers would be spent at supermarkets like NTUC, Fairprice and bypass the heartland shops. If the major supermarket chains are involved, the scheme could effectively mirror a cash top up."
He also asked how much of the $150 million has been allocated for the CDC voucher scheme per se, and how much constitutes the amount allocated for the administration of the program.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/singaporeans-cdc-mayor-salaries-outrageous-pritam-singh-062435406.html