What is $3.2billion surplus doing in Tote Board, when more can be used to help poor?

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

At a parliamentary sitting last month (13 May), NCMP Lina Chiam asked the Govt whether the Tote Board publishes an annual report detailing its donations made and, if not, why.

Minister of State for Finance, Josephine Teo, then replied on behalf of the Govt that Tote Board’s annual report, which contains a summary of donations made, is tabled in Parliament.

Ms Teo said, “Members were notified of this when the last Annual Report was tabled in September last year.”

“Besides being available at the National Library, the annual report can now also be viewed on Tote Board’s website.”

Prominent blogger Leong Sze Hian told TR Emeritus (TRE), “In this regard, before NCMP Lina Chiam had asked this question, I could not find any annual reports on the Tote Board’s website. So, I went to the National Library at NEX and discovered that it was only available at the National Library headquarters at Bugis.”

“So, I went to the National Library headquarters and also could not find them, until I approached the librarian at the reference section on level 7. The librarian helped me find hard copies of the annual reports (available only in the reference section) from FY2006 to FY2010. Apparently, she also could not find the annual reports for FY2011 or FY2012, or the annual reports before FY2006.”

Mr Leong added, “So, if not for NCMP LIna Chiam’s question – maybe the Tote Board’s annual report may never appear on its website!”

“In today’s digital age, why weren’t its annual reports made available online on its website, until now?”

In any case, Mr Leong is looking through the Tote Board’s FY2011 and FY2012 annual reports [Link] and will inform netizens accordingly of his findings.

Already, looking through the latest FY2012 annual report, Mr Leong said he has found the surplus for the year was $348 million after making donations of $375 million.

Mr Leong said, “The surplus was almost as much as the total amount donated in the year!”

“Why is it that it needs to have so much surplus for the year (practically every year if you look at the past annual reports) – $348 million?”

Also, Mr Leong noted that the Tote Board’s accumulated surpluses increased last year by 11.5% from $2.9 billion to $3.2 billion!

Mr Leong further asked, “Why is there a need to accumulate so much surpluses – $3.2 billion, when its annual revenues have been and seem to be able to meet all its funding commitments into the future?”

TRE readers are encouraged to read the annual reports and send in your observations on how the gaming funds are managed and disbursed. Supposedly, the gaming revenue collected by Tote Board is mostly used for social services such as supporting the needy.

TR Emeritus

*Article first appeared on www.TREmeritus.com


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