"'Civil servants must walk the ground first before making policies': Ngiam Tong Dow - TODAY 11 July 2015
SINGAPORE: Young civil servants should first walk the ground and understand the problems before they formulate policies, said former top mandarin Ngiam Tong Dow at the DBS Asian Insights Conference on Friday (Jul 10).
Mr Ngiam, who had served 40 years as Permanent Secretary in various ministries, was one of the panellists discussing the topic, "How Can Singapore Future-proof its Relevance for the Next 50 Years".
Responding to a question from the audience on whether high salaries in the civil service are diverting talent and growth away from the private sector, he said that civil servants are worthy of their salaries but the way they are trained is important.
“When a young scholar comes back, he should not be sent to the Ministry of Finance’s Treasury division and become the regulator. He should really be sent to the Economic Development Board (EDB), or the Housing and Development Board, and serve an internship of a year to learn the problems of the ground,” said Mr Ngiam, who is an adjunct professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
“Unless the civil servant knows the problems on the ground, he would become just a regulator. And regulators, there are too many (of them) in Singapore,” he added, prompting applause from the audience of about 900 Government, business and thought leaders.
Weighing in on the question, Banyan Tree Holdings executive chairman Ho Kwon Ping said that while tweaks to the public sector’s pay structure may have to be considered along the way, it is better to “err on the side of overpaying”.
“It is better to tweak and reform the system from where we are today than to have a system where civil servants are all forced to be corrupt because they are so underpaid,” he said.
However, he noted the danger that this approach poses to the private sector. “(Companies) either have to keep up with the salaries, which are high, or you have an overbalance, or perhaps a hollowing out of the best and brightest in Singapore all going to the public sector. That may not be good for Singapore in the long run,” he said.
Mr Ngiam added that well-educated Singaporeans should be spread across various segments of society and not concentrated in the public sector. “If you just keep them within the Government, in the long run, (they) become an elite, become fossilised,” he said."
It is always good to hear from the ex-elite who has something difference to say!
Lessons for me are:
1. Good suggestion from Mr Ngiam to have young returning government scholars to have at least a year of 'on the ground' experiences. Would have thought this is how it is done now since it is 'crazy' to put someone so young and lacking in real world experience to be forming policies for the masses!;
2. Mr Ho's comments of: 'to err on the overpaying side so that the civil servants are NOT FORCED to be corrupt.' is a bit disappointing as it is still reflecting the government's view that: 'if you pay peanut (which is a different kind from the ex-NKF saga), you will get monkeys'! and that 'our Civil Servants SIMPLY have no stomach to being poorly paid'! Question is: are they 'poorly' paid?;
3. more importantly, where does 'altruism' and 'sense of justice' and 'sense of public service' come in? If we keep emphasising that: 'civil servants will become corrupt IF you don't pay them well!', then we will NEVER be able to go back to the time of late Mr Lee Kuan Yew and the 1st generation leaders who serve not because of the pay they were getting. They served because they WANT TO create a new nation that is 'fair and just', 'a democratic society based on justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and peace for all'!
In Singapore, we OBVIOUSLY have an 'overpaying culture' established! We FOLLOWED the corrupt USA system where they pay their Corp CEOs multi-millions dollar package! Then we said: 'Our Singapore Corporate CEOs are paid millions BUT NOT to the level of the USA counterparts'! Then we also say: 'Our political leaders are paid fairly even though they are paid MORE than the President of USA!'.
For me, 'pay is NEVER enough' IF you have an insatiable appetite! 'Money is NEVER ENOUGH if you have unlimited wants and needs!'
So, what is 'enough so that the civil servants would not want to become corrupt'? It is about HOW they look at the money and HOW they want to spend the money!
Surely a S$500k annual fixed salary can afford you with a decent life! NO?
SINGAPORE: Young civil servants should first walk the ground and understand the problems before they formulate policies, said former top mandarin Ngiam Tong Dow at the DBS Asian Insights Conference on Friday (Jul 10).
Mr Ngiam, who had served 40 years as Permanent Secretary in various ministries, was one of the panellists discussing the topic, "How Can Singapore Future-proof its Relevance for the Next 50 Years".
Responding to a question from the audience on whether high salaries in the civil service are diverting talent and growth away from the private sector, he said that civil servants are worthy of their salaries but the way they are trained is important.
“When a young scholar comes back, he should not be sent to the Ministry of Finance’s Treasury division and become the regulator. He should really be sent to the Economic Development Board (EDB), or the Housing and Development Board, and serve an internship of a year to learn the problems of the ground,” said Mr Ngiam, who is an adjunct professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
“Unless the civil servant knows the problems on the ground, he would become just a regulator. And regulators, there are too many (of them) in Singapore,” he added, prompting applause from the audience of about 900 Government, business and thought leaders.
Weighing in on the question, Banyan Tree Holdings executive chairman Ho Kwon Ping said that while tweaks to the public sector’s pay structure may have to be considered along the way, it is better to “err on the side of overpaying”.
“It is better to tweak and reform the system from where we are today than to have a system where civil servants are all forced to be corrupt because they are so underpaid,” he said.
However, he noted the danger that this approach poses to the private sector. “(Companies) either have to keep up with the salaries, which are high, or you have an overbalance, or perhaps a hollowing out of the best and brightest in Singapore all going to the public sector. That may not be good for Singapore in the long run,” he said.
Mr Ngiam added that well-educated Singaporeans should be spread across various segments of society and not concentrated in the public sector. “If you just keep them within the Government, in the long run, (they) become an elite, become fossilised,” he said."
It is always good to hear from the ex-elite who has something difference to say!
Lessons for me are:
1. Good suggestion from Mr Ngiam to have young returning government scholars to have at least a year of 'on the ground' experiences. Would have thought this is how it is done now since it is 'crazy' to put someone so young and lacking in real world experience to be forming policies for the masses!;
2. Mr Ho's comments of: 'to err on the overpaying side so that the civil servants are NOT FORCED to be corrupt.' is a bit disappointing as it is still reflecting the government's view that: 'if you pay peanut (which is a different kind from the ex-NKF saga), you will get monkeys'! and that 'our Civil Servants SIMPLY have no stomach to being poorly paid'! Question is: are they 'poorly' paid?;
3. more importantly, where does 'altruism' and 'sense of justice' and 'sense of public service' come in? If we keep emphasising that: 'civil servants will become corrupt IF you don't pay them well!', then we will NEVER be able to go back to the time of late Mr Lee Kuan Yew and the 1st generation leaders who serve not because of the pay they were getting. They served because they WANT TO create a new nation that is 'fair and just', 'a democratic society based on justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and peace for all'!
In Singapore, we OBVIOUSLY have an 'overpaying culture' established! We FOLLOWED the corrupt USA system where they pay their Corp CEOs multi-millions dollar package! Then we said: 'Our Singapore Corporate CEOs are paid millions BUT NOT to the level of the USA counterparts'! Then we also say: 'Our political leaders are paid fairly even though they are paid MORE than the President of USA!'.
For me, 'pay is NEVER enough' IF you have an insatiable appetite! 'Money is NEVER ENOUGH if you have unlimited wants and needs!'
So, what is 'enough so that the civil servants would not want to become corrupt'? It is about HOW they look at the money and HOW they want to spend the money!
Surely a S$500k annual fixed salary can afford you with a decent life! NO?
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