VACANT GOVERNMENT QUARTERS FOR SENIOR CIVIL SERVANTS

Mrs Seow Peck Leng asked the Minister for Finance (i) how many Government Quarters for Senior Civil Servants are vacant, and (ii) how long they have been vacant and why.

Dr Goh Keng Swee: There are 482 senior officers' quarters. Of these, 171 are institutional quarters and 311 are what are sometimes called pool quarters. Institutional quarters are quarters under the control of departments and Ministries. Occupation of institutional quarters is required by virtue of the work performed by the officers, for example, hospitals, prisons and other places. There is no problem of vacant quarters here.

Pool quarters are quarters formerly occupied by expatriate civil servants and a limited number of local civil servants. In 1955, the Government decided that local officers should be encouraged to own houses and that no further quarters should be allocated to local senior officers. Those who were already in occupation of such quarters would continue to do so while they remained in Government service. With Malayanisation, a large number of pool quarters fell vacant and it became necessary to lease a number of them to members of the public. Twenty-four such quarters were leased out in 1960. Some of these quarters have been vacant for three years or more. At present, as a result of departure of further expatriate officers, there are 51 vacant quarters of which 16 are being reserved for experts and overseas officers who will be arriving in the near future. The others will be let out to members of the public. They are now being tidied up and big employers as well as members of the Consulate Corps are being invited to take up leases of these quarters.

Mrs Seow Peck Leng: Mr Speaker, I do not know whether I have missed it, but I do not think the Minister has told us how long these quarters have been vacant.

Dr Goh Keng Swee: The exercise that the present Government took in 1961 covered a fairly large number of quarters that have been vacant, as I have said, for some three years or more. Since 1961, some more houses have become vacant.

There was some uncertainty about exactly how many we can lease out to members of the public, because the number of experts and technicians we were then trying to recruit from overseas had not been finalised. But now we have a pretty close idea of how many experts and technicians we can get from overseas so that it is fairly safe now to lease some 35 quarters which have been vacant. Most of them will be vacant perhaps for a year or so.

Mrs Seow Peck Leng: Mr Speaker, Sir, does the Minister not agree that as a result of the 311 houses vacant for three years -

Dr Goh Keng Swee: No.

Mrs Seow Peck Leng: - the Government has lost a great amount of rent?

Dr Goh Keng Swee: No, not 311 houses vacant. The 311 are what we call pool quarters, that is, they are available for administrative officers and so on. Mr Speaker, Sir, I think you are in occupation of one of such quarters.

The number of houses that were vacant for three years or more and which were leased out in 1960 were 24. Since then, more have fallen vacant.

Mr David Marshall: Mr Speaker, Sir, in view of the position which indicated a considerable waste of public money, would the Minister consider putting on the market for sale those houses which the Government is quite satisfied it would not require for its own purposes in the future?

Dr Goh Keng Swee: I have been considering the sale of surplus Government houses for a very long time and I have not come to a decision yet.

Mrs Seow Peck Leng: Mr Speaker, Sir, can the Minister tell us whether it is true that there have been several applications from local senior officers for the use of quarters and from various Government departments for their departmental purposes and that they have been refused? I wonder why these applications were refused in spite of the fact that the quarters were vacant.

Dr Goh Keng Swee: If they have been refused, the reason is that it is not suitable to use residential quarters for office purposes. The practice, of course, has been to stretch to the limit the generous interpretation of this policy. For instance, the Ministry of Labour has got away with quite a number of applications. We agreed to allow the quarters along Canning Rise to be used as offices because of their central convenience to members of the public, but where they move off into residential areas such as Tanglin, I think the hon. Lady will agree that it is quite inappropriate to use such houses as offices.