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During the Committee of Supply debates in Parliament on Mar. 2, Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Leong Mun Wai floated an idea to help the government cut costs.

Leong suggested rearranging various activities and budgets under several ministries, and proposed combining part of the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) and the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) into a new ministry that focuses on providing welfare for citizens.

In doing so, he also questioned the purpose of the People's Association (PA), and even suggested abolishing it by integrating it into a ministry.

Combine PA and MCCY

Leong explained that one of the aims of this year's Budget was to cut costs, and according to him, streamlining the current government structure is a way to do so.

"We should ensure the money is applied efficiently for each social purpose [and] there should be only one channel or platform," he said.

The PA currently has a budget of S$908 million, but community engagement and citizen welfare, which are the PA's goals, is also being handled by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) and MSF.

Adding that PA is "more like a political structure led by political appointees and volunteers", Leong said it is unclear whether the PA is "serving [its] purpose, serving the people or the ruling party".

To avoid duplicating resources, and transform community engagement into an "asset-light activity", Leong proposed either integrating the PA into the MCCY, or integrating all community engagement activities under the MCCY into the PA.

This would enable the government to reduce its huge expenditures on building new community centres, S$197 million of which has been budgeted for such development in 2022.

"Instead, we should free up the land and resources tied up in community centres and other facilities, and reallocate those resources to other social needs."

Proposing a new "Ministry of Resilient Citizens"

To ensure the government can stretch its dollar, Leong also suggested reorganising activities under each ministry.

For example, the S$679 million earmarked for the SkillsFuture programme should be moved from the Ministry of Education (MOE) to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

This, according to Leong, will ensure jobs are created for Singaporeans. SkillsFuture courses that "do not result in better jobs" should also be dropped, he said.

Meanwhile, the S$1.6 billion earmarked for the ECDA can be taken out of the MSF and integrated into the MOE to "create a seamless education and development curriculum for our children".

The remaining activities under the MSF can then be reorganised into a new ministry, which Leong dubbed the "Ministry of Resilient Citizens".

Leong elaborated on what this new ministry's scope would entail:

"With the transfer of the S$1.7 billion financial security programme from MOM to it, the MRC will focus on strengthening our social and financial compact, and overseas social and family development, scholarship and bursary programmes, CPF, a national healthcare scheme, a new unemployment insurance and lifelong fulfilment programmes for the benefit of Singaporeans."

Chan Chun Sing explains the purpose of PA

In response to Leong's proposals, Minister for Education Chan Chun Sing responded that where possible, the government has already implemented much of what he has suggested, by bringing together services and facilities to save costs and manpower.

Chan brought up an example of an asset-light model — a new type of community centre integrated with commercial developments.

Moving on to Leong's question on whether PA is fulfilling its purpose, Chan said that the PA helps to build up Singapore's social capital in peacetime, and to serve the existing government.

Chan pointed out that the various mask and hand sanitiser distributions and other initiatives during the pandemic could be carried out in part due to the "social bonds", "trust" and "deep network" the PA has built up over the years.

He said:

"For example, during the Covid-19 crisis, where do we get the extra capacity to reach out to do our vaccination operations to distribute the masks, to distribute the sanitisers? Where do we get the people to go and reach out to the people who are in isolation in their homes?

It didn't depend just on the PA staff. There's only about 2000 PA staff. But there are many volunteers that we mobilise to come together, and without these capabilities and capacities. I'm not sure that we will be able to achieve the various things that we have been able to achieve during our crisis operations to manage the ongoing COVID situation."

Public service always looking to improve itself: Chan

Highlighting Leong's suggestions to reorganise the ministries, Chan explained that the various agencies are already "flexibly configured" to meet the people's needs.

Countering Leong's idea to remove ECDA from MSF and integrate it with MOE, Chan said that ECDA works closely with both ministries as caring for pre-schoolers involves the education component, which MOE handles, and the care component, which MSF handles.

"So it's not a stovepipe mindset that we adopt going into how we structure our organisations."

Nevertheless, Chan admitted that Singapore's public service is "not perfect". He said that the government is "constantly guarding against complacency", and is thus open to taking ideas from those in Parliament to improve and adapt to evolving circumstances.

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Top photo from MCI / YouTube and PA website