6/08/2011

Investigative journalism

There is a big report in the ST today about the number of MPs holding directorships in listed companies. Apparently Hsien Loong’s message has sunk in and not many are now holding such directorships, and those who are holding have only a handful to show.

It will be more interesting to know what the situation was like say a year ago or at its heyday when many MPs were sitting in the board of directors and how many were they accepting then. This will give a true picture of how effective Hsien Loong’s message has gone down and how the MPs have started to tow the line.

Another area of investigative journalism that the people would like to see is the remuneration of Ministers last year. This will be a good reference point to compare the change when the Salary Review Committee comes out with its recommendations. The 2009 and 2010 remuneration payouts are of great interests to the public and should not be forgotten though a review is in progress. It is a kind of a milestone, from where it came and where it goes.

Or perhaps some statisticians in the new media may want to take on this task. Many are dying to know so that they can tell how far the Salary Review Committee has come.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How come the remunerations of the Ministers are confidential while the top talents in the Public Sectors are reported. Those top earners, including businessmen/women, their incomes are made known and used as benchmarking the Cabinet Members' Remunerations.
Is it shameful for Cabinet Members to reveal their incomes while it is glory for those in the Public Sector to have theirs' made known?
And why is the confidentiality or secret needed?

Anonymous said...

When they refuse to tell, like the HDB costing, the more there is a need to reveal. The act of not wanting to talk about it is an admission of guilt.

Who will do the revealing?

Anonymous said...

Ministers' salaries reported in the papers always use year 2009 as a reference point. Why ???

Is the remuneration in 2010 much higher to have to report ???

Anonymous said...

It is not only basic pay, how about bonuses (performance & or GDP), allowances, pensions, etc

Anonymous said...

Reported somewhere, performance bonus, 6-12mths, growth bonus, 6-12mths, basic 12mths, AWS 1mth.

What is the total?

Anonymous said...

We can prod, shout, resort to fasting protest, but they will never let us know their actual total remuneration. It is too secretive to be revealed, and if revealed will be just like GIC and Temasek. The figures will make Singaporeans non the wiser, only just more dumbstruck.