Daily Lessons from Life 08 January 2018 - The flood n Corp Sgp's bribery exchange

1. Memorable flooding day for Sgp! N it is comforting to learn that: "Flooding situation will ‘definitely improve’ when drainage works are completed: PUB"!!

Condolences to those who had their properies
- car or warehouse or lift, etc. - damaged in this unsual 1/2 month rainfall in 4hrs!!

2. "Contrary to perceptions, Keppel O&M did not get off lightly: Indranee Rajah

Mr Singh asked what was the nature of the board's oversight and culpability into the bribery scheme. 

"Is this something the Public Prosecutor or CPIB will look into or is this something for shareholders to consider?" 

Ms Indranee said this was not so much a question for the government, as it was a matter for Keppel, in terms of what was known or not known to them. Ms Indranee pointed Mr Singh to a statement issued by Keppel Corp which said that the company's and KOM's current board of directors were not aware of illegal payments to secure projects in Brazil. 

Ms Indranee reiterated the same point she made in response to an earlier question from Mr Singh. He had asked if the Temasek Holdings, as Keppel's largest single shareholder, will call for an extraordinary meeting with a view to pursue civil action against board members and other senior executives found responsible for the bribery scheme and for breach of fiduciary duties. 

"First, the Government owns 100 per cent of Temasek. It is not a direct shareholder of Keppel Corporation," she said. 

"Temasek owns just over 20 per cent of Keppel Corporation, which is not the entity in question here ... Keppel Corporation then owns 100 percent of KOM, which is the entity in question here."

She said the general principle of corporate governance is that shareholders would appoint the boards, which then, depending on whether members are executive or non-executive, would need to ensure their policies and governance are in proper order. 

"(The) day to day operations are done by the executive team or management," she said. 

"As I mentioned earlier, in this instance, the Government and Temasek do not interfere in the day to day running or management of Temasek portfolio companies.""

1st of all kudos to the parliament dominated by the PAP MPs allowed the questions fr the opposition WP MPs to get asked N SMOS Indranee for answering them. Whether the answers r reasonable, agreeable or acceptable by the discerning public or not, it is already a very good start to address potential issues in Sgp Inc!!

My take is Temasek needs to adopt an ACTIVIST Shareholder's stance when it' invested companies hv significant serious issues instead of continuing to let the board n mgt doing things business as usual. Tgis is especially so as Temasek is investing the public taxpayer's money!!

Hiding behind "we don't interfere with the running of the biz" simply won't do!!

Just thinking out loud!!