Huge $55 million In Reserve Holding Another financial item that stood out was the huge amount of reserve it holds – $55 million as of 31 Dec 2010. Most of it – $48 million - was held in a fund management investment scheme and one hopes that it is not all held in speculative risky instruments. $16.6m was held in quoted equities securities, $13m in quoted debt securities and another $7m in unquoted debt securities – all were used for trading purposes. Out of the $48 million investment fund, $10 million is in cash form – probably for easy transfer if there is a need. For a charity organization meant to help the public using CPF monthly deductible contribution, I thought that the reserve held was too excessive. $10 million in reserve holding will be sufficient for the council as it is almost guaranteed an annual income of $10 million each year from the CPF check-in contribution besides whatever top-up the government will provide to the council. Holding too much reserve means that the council has being ineffective in using whatever money it has received all along and the council’s committee can perhaps think out of the box to better use the extra fund for community outreach purposes. While working in CDAC, I attended meetings and there were always pleas for the deparments to use up all it’s money allocated as if not their reserves will grow too large. Besides the $10 million CPF funds it received annually on average, the government also pumped in $4.1 million in 2010 through various grants and subsidies. Should CDAC now re-channel any surplus funds that it will receive in future to benefit other charitable organisations which are badly in need of funds? I also remembered how when a job placement officer helped our jobless client found a job, each placement would bring in an extra $1000 funding from the Work Development Agency (WDA). Each job placement officer has a target of 10 placements a month and we have two placement officers working then. It looks like the government funds are meant for those organisations which carry the same agenda as theirs. Political Agenda? The Chariman of the council’s committee is Mr Lim Swee Say – a PAP MP and also the current NTUC labour chief. There are also a few other MPs sitting on the board e.g. Baey Yam Keng, Grace Fu Hai Yien, Sam Tan Ching Siong (ex-ED of CDAC and now senior Perm Sec with MCYS), Ong Ye Kung (NTUC) among others.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 05:58:36 +0000
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