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View Full Version : Is inter-ministerial turf wars the issue on why PM keeps setting up new offices?


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26-11-2014, 06:00 PM
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

Not another new office again! We bet that that was what came into your mind when you first saw this.

On Monday, prime minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the Smart Nation initiative to wire the whole of Singapore with technology.

He also said that the initiative will include plans to enhance cyber-security, to have "secure systems that we can trust."

"To realise this vision, I think we have to pull the pieces together from all over the Government. We will set up a Smart Nation Programme Office," Mr Lee said.

"Today, the Government departments are all variously doing their own thing – LTA, URA, MOM and so on.

"We can go much further if we can put it together, to identify issues, prototype ideas, deploy them effectively to benefit the whole nation.

"We will have a Smart Nation Programme Office and it will do this - take in perspectives and ideas from many sources, make sure that we take a whole-of-Government, whole-of-nation approach to building a Smart Nation.

Mr Lee also said, "To make sure that it works, I am going to put this Office in the Prime Minister’s Office, and I am putting Minister Vivian Balakrishnan in charge and I will take a personal interest.

This seems to be the year of creating new offices for Mr Lee.

In August, at the National Day Rally, he also announced the setting up of a Municipal Services Office (MSO).

He said similarly that the reason to do so is to have "one authority to coordinate all of the agencies: LTA, PUB, NParks, the whole lot, and single-mindedly focus on service delivery."

He asked Minister in Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs Grace Fu to oversee this Municipal Services Office, while working with National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan.

"I think Grace will do a good job," Mr Lee said.

But one cannot help but wonder, if the different government agencies and departments are already doing their job and if they are already working hand-in-hand, then why is there a need for coordinating offices?

If such offices are necessary, does this not mean that the agencies are not cooperating with one another?

Moreover, isn't the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) set up precisely to oversee the development of the infocomm technology in Singapore?

Why is Mr Lee setting up yet another office to oversee what an existing ministry should be doing?

Is this not a duplication of agencies, or is this another reason to give a ministerial position to someone else?

http://therealsingapore.com/content/...nnot-cooperate (http://therealsingapore.com/content/pm-lee-sets-new-offices-because-existing-agencies-cannot-cooperate)


Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.singsupplies.com/showthread.php?194676-Is-inter-ministerial-turf-wars-the-issue-on-why-PM-keeps-setting-up-new-offices&goto=newpost).