Town Councils' FY2020 Financial Statements and Governance Declarations
The revised severity-based governance assessment from FY2021 could improve oversight of estate management and potentially strengthen residents’ confidence in public-housing administration.
All 17 Town Councils received unqualified FY2020 financial statements, although the FY2020 Town Council Management Report assessment was suspended.
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Presentation of Town Councils’ FY2020 Financial Statements to Parliament
The Ministry of National Development (MND) has presented the FY2020 audited financial statements of the 17 Town Councils (TCs) to Parliament and the TCs will be publishing them on their websites.
2. All TCs had unqualified financial statements for FY2020.
3. In view of the Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) period in 2021, MND had granted the TCs a 1-month extension of the deadline for the submission of their audited financial statements and Governance Checklists, from 30 Sep 2021 to 31 Oct 2021.
Town Council Management Report (TCMR)
4. MND earlier announced that the FY2020 TCMR assessment for TCs was suspended for the period April 2020 to March 2021 and there will not be a report published for this period. MND will publish the next TCMR for FY2021 (for the period April 2021 to March 2022) in two reports, specifically a report on TCs’ performance for the operational indicators (Estate Cleanliness, Estate Maintenance, Lift Performance and S&CC Arrears Management) in May/June 2022, and a report reflecting TCs’ performance in regulatory compliance and financial reporting through the Corporate Governance (CG) indicator in November/ December 2022.
5. From FY2021, the methodology to assess TCs’ performance under the CG indicator will be revised to consider the severity of the observations , rather than just the number of observations. This will allow the CG indicator to provide a better reflection of TCs’ overall state of governance. For instance, an observation which constitutes an offence under the TCs Act will be considered high severity while a first-time administrative oversight that has been rectified will be considered low severity. Observations will be assigned points based on severity levels, and the TCs’ banding will be based on the total number of points they accumulate.
TCs’ Governance Declarations
6. While there was no TCMR assessment for FY2020, TCs were still required to submit their declaration of compliance with the regulatory requirements using the revised CG Checklist. The scope of the Checklist has been enhanced as part of the CG revisions, to include the new requirements from the 2017 TCs Act amendments.
7. FY2020 was also the first year where TCs made their declaration of compliance with the Code of Governance for TCs (“Code”) using the Governance Disclosure (GD) Checklist. The Code was launched in June 2019 and took effect from April 2020. It sets out the principles of good governance in four domains: (a) Council Effectiveness, (b) Internal Controls & Processes, (c) Financial Management and (d) Vendor Management. The Code complements the legislation which sets out the minimum standard of governance that the TCs are expected to comply with. Most of the Code provisions go beyond the legislative requirements and cover best practices that will guide TCs to achieve a higher level of governance over time. TCs are encouraged to adopt these best practices through a comply-or-explain regime.
8. TCs’ FY2020 CG and GD Checklists can be viewed on MND’s website.
Enquiries
9. Members of the public can refer to the TCs’ FY2020 financial statements on the respective TCs’ websites. TCs’ governance declarations can be found on www.mnd.gov.sg/towncouncils.