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5 Jul 2012, 7.20PM
19 comments & replies |by REACH Administrator | Replies to Feedback


The National Parks Board (NParks) recently bought 26 Brompton foldable bicycles for $2200 each for use by staff in the Park Connector Division. National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan wrote on his blog yesterday that he had contacted Nparks on this and they had explained to him that the purchase of the bicycles would allow staff to raise their productivity.

Minister Khaw said on his blog that due to the increase in demand on NParks staff to do field and tree inspections as park connectors were now 50km longer, providing staff with bicycles would enable them to cover more ground and do more inspections within the same time. 

He noted that each officer in Nparks’ Park Connector Division typically cover some 30km to 40km each day as part of their inspections. He added that a tender was put up on a government website for the purchase but at the close of the quotation, only one vendor has responded. He said that after Nparks has researched on and tested the equipment proposed, they had proceeded with the purchase after noting that the price quoted for the Brompton bicycles was lower than the listed retail price of the same model.

Minister Khaw said he is satisfied with Nparks’ explanation but added that it might have been able to snag a better deal if more vendors had participated in the tender.

He has requested for his ministry to discuss this particular case with government agencies to see if there are lessons to be drawn from this. 

For more details, read Minister Khaw’s blog posting.

5367 views  |  19 comments & replies  |  Add a comment
Guest
8 Jul 2012, 6.57PM
I have many questions on this purchase:

1) why is there no 3 quotes since this is a purchase by a stat board ? Even if only one submitted, can't this not be re-tender ?

2) is the specs reasonable (or too high) for the required purpose ? Are all the specs must-have versus nice-to-have ? would a cheaper bicycle do the job as well ? if not, how much less efficient are other bicycles ?

3) is the supplier an authorised distributor ? has thorough checks been done ? is the supplier related with any one in NParks ? 

4) did Nparks actively ask for quotes when there is only one submission ? if yes, how far did they go ? if not, why not ? does it not surprise them that no one else submit a bid ?

5) have NParks consider the cost of maintenance and the warranty ? and the cost of the parts ? If the bicycyle is very high-end, does it mean that the parts are very special and the buyer is locked-in to buy parts from the vendor forever ? (granted the claim that the bicycle is very lasting etc)

6) why is minister khaw so easily satisfied with the explanation ? and think that this is the right purchase decision ? what comparison has he made ? and how many different parties have he consulted before he came to his verdict ? Since this is public fund, shouldn't the criteria be tighter ?

7) when and how often does the NParks personnel carry these bicycles to/from MRT, how many really does this ? 

8) this is a bulk purchase, did NParks call up other suppliers to determine if there is bulk purchase discount ?


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Guest
9 Jul 2012, 10.12AM
after reading minister's blog and other articles, here's what i think:

1) it's open quotation, so it's a fair and transparent process, compared to just calling three companies. 


2) the specs are available online.  to me, the specs are worded generally and do not limit nparks to only bikes of a certain price range


3) supplier is parallel importer.  no news whether supplier is related to nparks.  probably not, otherwise news would be out by now


4) not clear whether nparks asked anyone before quotation was published.  if they were being fair, better not to tell anyone otherwise accused of favouritism


5) specs say supplier needs to give one-year warranty. if bike is durable, should need less maintenance in long run


6) i don't think minister khaw took it lightly.  he wrote blog after checking with nparks, looking at facts and coming to his own conclusion.


7) i suppose they do this on daily basis 


8) specs are in open quotation.  up to suppliers to give bulk discount and offer best rate.
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Guest
10 Jul 2012, 4.49PM
What's hidden here is that only one quotation was received by a parallel importer and the ministry in charge never even contacted the official distributors (which are selling them cheaper) to get a counter quote.

What's hidden here is no one is even aware of the tender process. It's on an automated system that you need to login to.  Now I ask you, how often are there request for tenders for bicycles?  If you run a smal shop (which is 95% of the bicycle shops here), will you be logging in to the system daily on the off chance that there is such a request?

The entire system is flawed if they can just get only one tender and go ahead with the purchase.  How easy is it then to put n the request on an isolated sysyem like this, then just inform your own friend or relative about it and tell no one else?

So at the end of the "exercise", there is just one bid and the case is closed?
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Guest
28 Jul 2012, 2.40PM
Even Temasek own GLC companies are involved in parallel imports. So can't blame the company selling to Nparks.
I know of a GLC who import copied products from China and sell as compatibles.

Monkey see , Monkey do !
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Guest
16 Jul 2012, 3.19PM
Are we to accept Minister Khaw explanation.  Of course.   This is sheer waste of taxpayers money.  You do not get value for your purchase.   S$2200 each can buy  between up to 20 bikes if the purchasing manager has used his brains.   Unfortunately we are hiring robots.
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Guest
7 Jul 2012, 10.39AM
$2200 is peanut.
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Guest
9 Jul 2012, 7.16AM
Such wastage of taxpayers' money is only at the tip of the iceberg. I can't imagine what we will uncover should we dig deeper into the system.
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Guest
5 Jul 2012, 9.59PM
It is very obvious that at S$2200 for a foldable bicycle is expensive.  It i paying for  5 star hotel char kuek teow?  All the same except where it come from or where it is made.

Something is terribly wrong.  Poor judgement or not working hard enough?
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Guest
25 Jul 2012, 9.30AM
I think it may have been better for Minister Khaw to say he would look into the matter first instead of defending the decision and subsequently announcing the suspension of the officer in charge on grounds certain regulations were not complied with.

If the Government needs time to look into something, they should just say so, do it relatively quickly and then only start making announcements.

The way it was done makes it sound like a knee jerk reaction to say what it takes to prevent the Government from looking bad.
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Guest
28 Jul 2012, 2.43PM
Shan Kao, Huang Ti Yuen.

When I do business in China , the folks in Suzhou has a saying translated as "The mountain is high, the Emperor is far away"

I don't expect our million dollar politicians to monitor and know about a $2000/$50K  purchase.
Where is the common sense ?

Not my money what ! YOG $400 M, Bay Gardens $ 1B, what is next ?
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Guest
6 Jul 2012, 11.15PM
Many of us very disappointed with National Parks Board (NParks) recently bought 26 Brompton foldable bicycles for $2200 each. Please note if your pay is only $2200 per month will u buy this bicycle. There are many of us still earn below this amount of salary. Besides where is the transparency and there should have a proper system and audit to be carry out before such purchase. It is very expensive to learn for this lesson.
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Guest
9 Jul 2012, 12.10PM
What to do , bicycles buy already. Later , minister khaw will say ok and live with it.
So what can we people except whining and talking. 60 percent give the mandate to the party already.
Now, they can do dancing and sing along session.

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Guest
9 Jul 2012, 3.42PM
So if there's only one vendor and the price is $5000 per unit,NParks still has to honour the bid and pay for the bicycles,according to the law?
Have we become so bureaucratic that we have turned dumb?Or eaten too much "Dumb Briayani"?
It's taxpayers' monies being recklessly squandered here................
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Guest
9 Jul 2012, 10.47PM
No, there's such a thing as budget.  i don't think nparks expected quotations of $5000 per bike, but they were clearly prepared to pay $2200 per bike.  I disagree with you.  I think nparks spent the money to buy quality and durable goods.
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Guest
11 Jul 2012, 10.19AM
...and I disagree with you cause you're not thinking further than the bull they're feeding you.  It's not the quality that's in question, it's their bidding process and accountability that's in question.

Sure, get a good product.  No point saving a penny and end up spending a pound on repairs... but just how open is their bidding prcess and where's the thought process behind the exercise that they can go ahead with just one quote without even finding out who the local official distributor is and checking their price?
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(Newbie)
Silverwolf
12 Jul 2012, 12.32PM
No doubt I believe NParks officers followed their SOP. But did they do their job with a heart. If they were to pay for the bikes themselves, will they still be willing to pay $2200? I seriously doubt anybody along the approval chain asked this question. Disappointingly, Minister Khaw has accepted their explanation which I think its pretty superficial. I expected more from Minister Khaw. Perhaps officers that did really care (in the era of Mr Lim Kim San and Dr Goh Keng Swee) were just a myth or perhaps they had gone into extinction.
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Guest
24 Jul 2012, 10.07PM


Why sit and wait for expensive quotations, cant those lazy people go online or visit bicycles shops for quotations?
公家钱不是钱，尽情挥霍!
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Guest
24 Jul 2012, 11.09PM
Now they report there is something wrong and are investigating.  What has the Minister got to say about this latest development?
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Guest
5 Sep 2012, 11.31AM
An alternative way is to get cheap,non-foldable bicycles(as cheap as $70)and park them at MRT stations which are too far apart for the field officers to cycle.Or assign them greenery areas that are near each other so they can cycle to and fro without having to carry the bicycles aboard trains.
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