Requirement for Flag Day Applicants to Maintain Average Gross Proceeds

Mr Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap asked the Minister for Social and Family Development what is the rationale for requiring Flag Day applicants to maintain average gross proceeds of at least $50,000 over the last three Flag Days.

Mr Chan Chun Sing: The National Council of Social Service (NCSS) allocates dates for flag days and issues fundraising permits to its Voluntary Welfare Organisation (VWO) members. Every year, there are more applicants than the number of available flag days, and open balloting is used to allocate the slots. To encourage VWOs to make full use of each flag day and permit, NCSS has a requirement for applicants to achieve an average of $50,000 over three flag days. In practice, NCSS has exercised flexibility and granted waivers to many applicants that did not meet the requirement so that they could continue to ballot for available flag day slots.