MCYS rebuts SDP's criticism of YOG
by Cheow Xin Yi
04:46 AM Apr 09, 2011
SINGAPORE - The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) has responded to Singapore Democratic Party's (SDP) criticism of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) as an event "riddled with incompetence and mismanagement".
In a letter to Today published on Friday, the SDP said the party will take on MCYS Minister Vivian Balakrishnan in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC to hold him accountable for the YOG budget, which ended up three times the initial S$104 million planned.
In response, MCYS sports director Koh Peng Keng pointed out that although the YOG was one-third the size of the Summer Olympics, its expenditure was less than 10 per cent of the most recent Games.
Ultimately, the YOG brought in S$60 million in additional tourism receipts for Singapore and a marketing value of at least S$56.7 million, he said.
i read the reply by MCYS over and over. i just dont comprehend how their response in anyway answered the original criticism of its incompetence and mismanagement.
spent S$312million.... and claims to have brought in S$60mil of tourism dollar and S$56.7mil of "marketing value" ?? besides the obvious that we lost money hosting this event, how is this line of answer relevant at all? and by the way, what is "marketing value"?
this is why we need opposition members of parliament... this is why we need them to make pap accountable to our taxpayers...
without such opposition MPs, pap can squander away our taxpayers' money anyway they deem fit