In the video Sylvia Lim, an MP for Aljunied GRC, asked Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan to clarify his position on whether the 1-month termination clause in the AIM contract for critical IT system did or did not jeopardize the continuity of services to the residents.
By insisting that Town Council requirements can be met with off-the-shelf software such that a Town Council could be up and running within a month, he is stating that a reasonable amount of man effort would suffice to combine off-the-shelf financial software with customizations and usage processes such that Town Council requirements might be met satisfactorily (I agree with him in principle, but not to the extent that it all can be done in a month).Khaw’s reply was surprising. He cited that the 1-month period was sufficient for the Aljunied Town Council to purchase an off-the-shelf accounting package.
The video below bears review:
In any case, the implications of this are clear. By paying $23.8 million over 1-2 year to develop the Town Council Management System, the PAP Town Councils have overpaid. Barring misconduct, such an overpayment implies gross incompetence. Noting that the PAP MPs signed off on the expenditure, they are responsible.
Let me make closing comments on project management. The $23.8 million figure comes as a major shock. If I were awarded the contract, I would spend $600k to comfortably develop the software with 3-4 good software engineers using some high quality open source components.
Imagine a fully distributed TCMS system keeping its data on a distributed database, so that the complete corruption of data in one Town Council would allow that Town Council to resume operations at the speed of data transfer (that is, after getting new hardware and the installation of software, of course). Issues like maintenance and future proofing would all be factored in, a little each ear could be earmarked for support. Granted, at that time some existing components would not have been available so a less ambitious set-up would have been possible at that same cost. The cost of hardware might bring the cost up to over $1 million.
$23.8 million is simply excessive overspending.
Jeremy Chen
* Jeremy is currently a PhD student at the Department of Decision Sciences at NUS Business School. Jeremy believes in the possibility of a beautiful synthesis of “social justice” and “the free market”. He also hopes for less politicking and more policy discussion in the political arena. He blogs at http://jeremy-chen.org.