I think you have made the same mistake made usually by the government to sway the attention of a debate to a different dimension. Here we are talking about wastage in the implementation of LCD Panels, in place of paper noticeboards. Can you advise how can the replacement of paper noticeboards result in a savings of $500,000? With the rising cost of electricity, the replaced paper noticeboard is probably going to be the cheaper option, instead of the other way round.

I also thank you for bringing up one thing – the little thought civil servants (not all, but probably yourself and those you have come across) give to conservation of energy. On the surface there are so many nicely worded announcements of how Singapore is going Green, how Town Councils are investing in energy saving schemes, in respond to an imminent climate change threat. However, to you, it is simply a question of $2,000 – $3,000 per month saved on utilities.

But I agree with you, our money is wasted thoughtlessly in many ways.

That does not mean that mindlessly wasting electricity is excusable, but there are really more important issues to attend to that will save taxpayers much more money as opposed to doing a very detailed cost-benefit analysis as to whether the carbon footprint of printing paper notices is larger than the carbon footprint of using an LCD panel over 10 years.

Conversely, if civil servants had enough time to scrutinize the budget for utilities for individual blocks of flats, you should really be concerned whether there is enough work for the civil servant to do in the office in the first place. The question you should ask is, “Why is this guy so free to calculate this kind of thing??” Is his/her salary giving you, the citizen, value for money?

But how then to discourage business units from over budgeting and then return surplus to the organization. The problem is resource hogging at the beginning of the financial year. Hence, the idea is that only ask for how much you should spend, and spend on what it is allocated for.

In some government agencies (can’t name them … lol), people are encourage to return the potential surplus before year end (like 6 months before) so that the agencies can reallocate accordingly. But these are voluntary actions. Some get rewarded for prudent spending. However, there is no stopping from some units spending $$ on nonsense stuff.

So what I am trying to say is that there is no perfect system. But an encouragement to do proper budgeting and spending and early reallocation is not a bullet proof way – though not a bad way either.

1. Using paper doesn’t preclude use of electricity. You still need electricity to power printer to print paper.

2. Using paper entails more usage of trees and minerals, i.e. wooden and steel cabinets and storages etc.

3. Most paper discarded aren’t recycled; recycling is still a very inefficient process and business.

What will be next? Cordless public phones? Dustbins with music? Then tax Singaporeans like crazy?