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Sengkang Town Council (SKTC) received an "Amber" rating for Service & Conservancy Charges (S&CC) arrears management in the latest report released by the Ministry of National Development (MND) on Jun. 22.

This is the second year the town council has received an amber rating for the same category.

The three colour bands in the category will show green as the top grade and red as the worst.

For consecutive years, the town council has received a green rating on estate cleanliness, maintenance, and lift performance.

SKTC improved within the band

In a statement in 2022, SKTC responded to media queries stating that the amber rating it received points to the "deeper, underlying challenges" residents face in managing the rising living costs.

In 2023, the town council's spokesperson told Mothership that they had a steady improvement as they had moved from the lower-end score of the amber band in FY2021 to the upper end in FY2022.

He pointed out that since December 2022, the town council has consistently been in the green band.

SKTC's overdue collectable slightly more than 40 per cent: MND

In a press release, MND explained that for town councils to be banded green for the S&CC Arrears Management category, they had to have less than 40 per cent of the monthly collectable S&CC overdue and less than four in 100 households that owed arrears for three months or more.

MND stated that SKTC was banded "Amber" as while the town council had met the criteria for limiting the number of households that owed arrears, the monthly collectable S&CC for the town overdue was slightly more than 40 per cent.

Under the Town Council Management Report (TCMR) Operational Report, all 17 town councils in Singapore were assessed across four operational indicators — Estate Cleanliness, Estate Maintenance, Lift Performance and S&CC Arrears Management.

Besides SKTC, the other town councils scored green on all four indicators for FY2022.

Remains focused on designing practical repayment schemes: SKTC

SKTC's spokesperson also highlighted that SKTC attained green banding for cleanliness, maintenance, and lift performance since the town council's inception.

He also shared that SKTC has been working very closely with its residents and remains focused on designing practicable repayment schemes for them, taking into consideration their circumstances and the economic environment.

"As a relatively young town council that has recently transited into direct management, SKTC would like to convey its appreciation and recognise the efforts of our various stakeholders—our residents, staff, contractors and partners- in doing our part for Sengkang. "

Top image via SKTC Facebook & Google Maps