SINGAPORE: The Members of Parliament from The Workers’ Party have filed questions that bring up a number of significant issues for when sessions resume. Parliament sittings will begin again at 10 am on Tuesday (Jan 7).
Among these issues are the NRIC numbers that were unmasked on ACRA’s Bizfile portal from Dec 9 to 13, the aborted Allianz-Income deal, the service obligations of SingPost, and other issues, including those involving cost of living.
Regarding the unmasked NRIC numbers, Dennis Tan (Hougang SMC) has addressed his question to Lawrence Wong, the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance.
Regarding the Singaporeans whose numbers were exposed, he asked for the Government’s assessment of the risks that these were accessed and downloaded by malicious actors for scams or onward sale and if the Government is prepared to provide compensation to them.
Other WP MPs, including Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh, have questions regarding the NRIC issue as well, such as questions about the exact number of NRIC numbers that were available for public viewing on the portal and what inter-Ministerial consultations were conducted before the decision to unmask the NRIC numbers.
After it was revealed that some NRIC numbers were accessible publicly, many Singaporeans voiced their concerns.
On Dec 19, the government apologized to the public, with Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo saying these concerns were being taken seriously.
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Indranee Rajah, said that the issue was caused by a misunderstanding. ACRA’s chief executive, Chia-Tern Huey Min, also apologised.
On the Allianz-Income deal, which was called off after the public again raised concerns, WP Chair Sylvia Lim (Aljunied GRC) asked what lessons the government had learned after the aborted sale.
Read more: Allianz officially withdraws majority stake offer for Income Insurance
Shortly before Christmas, SingPost announced the dismissal of three senior executives over how a whistleblower report was handled.
In connection with this, Mr Singh (Aljunied GRC) will raise a question regarding whether there has been an impact on SingPost’s performance as a public postal licensee, particularly when it comes to its service obligations and standards as set by the Government.
Read related: Former SingPost executive Li Yu to contest his employment termination as he claims the allegations are “without merit”
Regarding the issue of the cost of living, Gerald Giam (Aljunied GRC) addressed a question to the Minister for Manpower with regard to whether the CPF Board has reviewed the adequacy of the $140,000 total CPF contribution threshold for the Silver Support Scheme in light of inflation over the past three years.
He also asked if this would be reviewed to keep the threshold aligned with the cost of living.
The list of the Members of Parliament who will be speaking in a given session is posted on the Parliament of Singapore’s official Facebook page, and a live stream of the proceedings may be viewed on the official YouTube channel. /TISG
Read also: Former WP secretary-general, Low Thia Khiang, retires from politics
