Lim Tean - accountability and transparency in Temasek and GIC

The Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which invests the pension funds of Canadians, has published its annual report. It is a model of clarity as it fully accounts to every stakeholder who contributes to this fund on how the fund has performed over the last year.

...the CPPIB reported:
a) $239 Billion net income, after all CPPIB costs, for the last 10 years. The rate of return was 11.1% (net nominal);
b) As of March 31, 2019, the CPP Fund Value stood at $392 Billion;
c) The fund made a net income of $32 Billion, after all CPPIB costs, for fiscal 2019. The rate of return was 8.9% (net nominal)....

We cannot continue with our SWFs operating an opaque system where vital information, including the remuneration of management and our true national reserves, are kept away from the stakeholders, who are the CPF contributors and every tax payer in Singapore. Every Norwegian citizen knows at any given moment what the national reserves of Norway are. That is true transparency and accountability.

When Peoples Voice is in government, we will ensure that our SWFs operate with the transparency that is in line with 1st world standards!

The above is posted in TRE by Lim Tean. I would like to point out a few points raised by Lim Tean and why they are not relevant to compare to our CPF and the top talented fund managers in Temasek and GIC.

The lack of transparency is important in the CPF case because if they are to tell the world how much money we have in reserves, all the bankrupt companies would be queuing up to beg for money as in the case of the global financial crisis. And when the white men went down on their knees to beg for money, it is very hard to refuse and we would end up giving away our reserves to help them without knowing that white men can be con men and can cheat us and make us look so stupid.

Another good reason related to this is that our reserves could be many times more than the announced figures. And the profits could be many times more than what the Canadians are making, maybe 15%, but just being humble only. So don't think just because the announced profits are less than 5% they really mean it. The truth could be quite flattering.

As for transparency of management remuneration, they really cannot tell, if you believe what I said above. If they are transparent and tell you how many billions more they made above the Canadians, and demand to be paid proportionally, then what is being paid to them would not be enough. Singaporeans must say thank you for this.

Let's not quibble about this transparency thing if we know that our national reserves are huge, very huge and very safe. The only way to know that this is true is the amount of money the govt can spend, always in the billions on big projects, big and expensive war machine and big parties. If the govt does not have so much money in reserves, they would not dare to waste public money in unnecessary or non essential projects or events or parties.

Not to forget, they are giving away money freely to the seniors, the pioneer and merdeka generations. The money must come from somewhere, meaning our reserves are big and safe, only don't want to tell that's all.

Singaporeans must be very thankful for the non transparency in how much we have in the reserves, in how much we made every year and in not knowing how much the managers are being paid.

Accountability and transparency are unnecessary when a country is so well run by the most honest and honourable men and women money can buy.

Do I make sense?