Singapore sovereign wealth funds – Part 1: The transparency problem

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

A recent exchange between blogger Roy Ngerng and DPM Tharman at a forum on CPF organised by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) only served to showcase the incredible opacity of the state’s SWFs and our CPF. There were and still are numerous things people do not know that they do not know, which they should definitely know about. As citizens of Singapore and the rightful owners of the SWFs, we ought to be ashamed as shareholders of these multi-billion dollar entities.

Before the IPS forum was conducted and prior to the defamation suit between Mr Ngerng and PM Lee, it was common knowledge that Temasek was the entity tasked with investing our CPF monies. But in its aftermath, it is now understood that Temasek has never invested a single dime from our CPF.

Instead, our CPF monies was ‘chartered’ and channelled into Special Singapore Government Securities (SGSS) which the state then proceeded to use for infrastructure developments. On hindsight, the results were mostly well and good. But do the ends justify the means?

It is inherently immoral to spend monies belonging to other individuals without their knowledge in the hope of a greater benefit, even it is to both the owner and the undertaker. For when the plan fails, it is the owner who bears all the risks.

Had the Asian economic boom not materialised, CPF assets would have been wiped clean with nothing to show. Should such risks have been taken with the hard-earned monies of the people? Had a private individual undertaken something similar, the charges would have been embezzlement and misappropriation, no matter the intention.

However, from the state’s perspective, they had the backing of a frequently amended constitution. The fact that the Singapore constitution is so easily amended points to a system....

http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2014...rency-problem/


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