Yet another person writes in to Straits Times today about the lack of acknowledgement of accountability, but now it’s targeted at the government.

Town Council lost a few million dollars to bad investment by DBS and typically, they scrambled to offer logical explanations just to prove that it is a reasonable mistake on their part.

ST reported on 19 Nov:

EIGHT town councils (TC) run by the People’s Action Party have about $16 million invested in troubled structured products.The lion’s share of $12 million is from two TCs: Holland-Bukit Panjang ($8 million) and Pasir Ris-Punggol ($4 million).

The products include Minibonds linked to bankrupt US investment bank Lehman Brothers and the now worthless Merrill Lynch Jubilee Series 3 LinkEarner Notes.

Dr Teo Ho Pin, chairman of the Holland-Bukit Panjang TC as well as coordinating chairman for the 14 PAP town councils, disclosed this yesterday……The 14 TCs ‘do not have significant investments’ in the troubled products, he said. The $16 million is 0.8 per cent of all their funds available for investment. In Holland-Bukit Panjang, $8 million is invested in Minibonds and Jubilee notes. This works out to 6.7 per cent of its investible funds.

It has another $3 million in the potentially-troubling Pinnacle Notes Series 6 arranged by Morgan Stanley.

Pasir Ris-Punggol’s $4 million is 2.6 per cent while in the remaining six TCs, the amount for each is below 1 per cent.

Why can’t town council leaders be gracious and apologise?” asks Adrian Choo in his letter to ST. I second that!

As business owners, we can all learn something from this. An apology is worth more when given without demand.

Are you a business owner? Do you find it difficult to apologise when things go wrong?

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