PENALTY ON PARKING WARDEN MR BALRAJOO

Mr J.B. Jeyaretnam asked the Minister for National Development why a penalty of $20 was imposed on Parking Enforcement Officer Mr. Balrajoo s/o Ragavan for reporting that motor vehicle EU 3803K had been found parked at Pine Grove Car Park on the 22nd of August 1985 at 1.31 a.m. without displaying any parking label authorizing the parking of the vehicle in the car park.

The Minister for National Development (Mr Teh Cheang Wan): Mr Speaker, Sir, a penalty of $20 was imposed on Balrajoo s/o Ragavan by the HDB for his negligence in wrongly issuing a parking offence notice. This was done under HDB's disciplinary rules as provided in its Instruction Manual for parking wardens. These rules have been formulated to ensure that members of the public are not inconvenienced through negligence or abuse of authority by parking wardens. Most of HDB parking wardens are, however, performing well. In the last 12 months, there were only four other cases where similar penalties had to be imposed on parking wardens.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Would the Minister, first of all, confirm that this member of the public is also a Member of this House? And, secondly, would the Minister say whether any inquiry was held and the officer in question informed of the evidence against him before the penalty of $20 was slapped on him?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: Mr Speaker, Sir, on the first supplementary question, the answer is yes. On the second supplementary question, the penalty has been imposed in accordance with the HDB rules governing its staff.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Mr Speaker, Sir, I sometimes despair of Ministers answering the questions put to them. Will the Minister answer the question: was there any inquiry conducted? Was the statement of the Member of Parliament about whether he had displayed any parking label on the car brought to the notice of this officer?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: Mr Speaker, Sir, it is not necessary under the HDB rules to conduct an inquiry and call the Member of Parliament to be present. But HDB officers in charge of this case have followed the HDB rules governing its staff and have imposed the penalty.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Are we to understand from the Minister that the HDB is an authority unto itself that it can punish anybody without even telling him what the offence is, what the evidence against him is, and without hearing him?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: Mr Speaker, Sir, as far as HDB staff are concerned, the disciplinary action against the staff is clearly laid down in the HDB's administrative rules, and its staff is following these rules. The action taken against its staff is in accordance with these rules.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Would the Minister please disclose the rule or regulation under which this penalty was imposed?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: Mr Speaker, Sir, I think the Member for Anson does not seem to listen to my answer. I have stated in my answer quite clearly that this penalty was imposed under the HDB disciplinary rules, as provided in its Instruction Manual for parking wardens. I can send him a set of the Instruction Manual on the rules governing parking wardens.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Does the Minister not understand my question? Has he not realized that I am not asking him to send me the Instruction Manual? I was asking him to read to me the specific rule which provides for the HDB to slap on a penalty of $20 on an alleged negligence, or otherwise, of an officer.

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: Mr Speaker, Sir, if the Member for Anson is interested in this matter, I will send him the rules. And when he reads the rules, then he will understand why the penalty has been imposed.

Mr Jeyaretnam: I want it now.

Mr Speaker: Let's save time. Send him the rules, Mr Teh.

Mr Chiam See Tong: Mr Speaker, Sir, supplementary question. May I ask the Minister how many cases similar to the one mentioned here where the -

Mr Speaker: It has just been mentioned.

Mr Chiam See Tong: - where the matter was brought under this disciplinary rule, where a fine was imposed on a warden or on any other persons? Were there other similar cases?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: Mr Speaker, Sir, again, the Member for Potong Pasir does not seem to listen to my answer. I have stated here quite clearly that "most of the HDB parking wardens are, however, performing well." That means, they are per- forming well. And in the last 12 months, there were only four other cases where similar penalties had to be imposed on the parking wardens. You must understand that HDB is the largest car parking authority and HDB controls more than 200,000 car park lots. The warden has to look after, patrol and ensure that parking in these more than 200,000 car park lots is orderly. A large number of HDB wardens are performing this duty. And HDB, by and large, has good parking wardens and, therefore, disciplinary action taken against wardens is very rare. And in the last 12 months, there were only four cases where HDB had to impose a penalty on these wardens. I think that both the Members just refuse to listen to my answer.

Dr Augustine H.H. Tan (Whampoa): Sir, may I ask the Hon. Minister whether there are normal channels of appeal for such cases, and whether the officer in question has made use of or exhausted all the normal channels of appeal without going outside?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: Mr Speaker, Sir, there is a normal channel of appeal, but I understand that the person in question has admitted the offence and has paid up the penalty.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Is the Minister aware that it is not a question of the officer paying the $20? It was deducted from him. Is the Minister not aware that there is a subtle difference between the man paying up $20 and it being compulsorily deducted from his salary?

The other question is: will the Minister tell us whether these four cases that he referred to related to vehicles of PAP MPs?

The third question is: would the Minister tell us whether this particular Member has a season parking ticket which he was required to display in his housing estate car park where the car was parked, and whether or not it was displayed at that time?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: Mr Speaker, Sir, in fact, the penalty imposed on the parking warden has been paid by the parking warden. It has been deducted.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Was it deducted?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: Has been deducted.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Thank you.

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: It has been paid by the warden. As I understand it, the warden had asked the senior officer for a deduction of the penalty. And the senior officer in charge of the case even helped the warden. The warden pleaded for a deduction of the penalty, and the senior officer in charge, I think paid $10 on behalf of the warden. So the warden paid only $10. And I was told that subsequently this warden had been advised by someone to return the $10 back to the senior officer.

An hon. Member: By the Member for Anson!

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: On the second question, this particular car, EU3803K, in fact, is an MP's car and has an MP's car label which entitles him to park in HDB estates. On top of that, he has also purchased a season parking ticket.

Mr Jeyaretnam: For his own estate?

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: For his own estate. In fact, that is not necessary. Any Member of Parliament who has an MP's car parking label does not need to purchase a season ticket. So, in short, this particular car has two labels entitling him to park in the HDB estate; one is the MP's car parking label, the other one is the season ticket. And HDB officers investigating this case were satisfied that the Member of Parliament had displayed the MP's label on his car. In fact, the HDB senior officer had personally checked the car and found that the MP's label was stuck on the windscreen and there was only one mark on that windscreen, and the mark was an old mark, not sort of newly stuck on. So the senior officers investigating the case were satisfied that there was negligence on the part of the car parking warden and, therefore, a penalty was imposed on him.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Mr Speaker, Sir, the Minister has not answered my other question, the second question, whether the four other cases also related to motorcars of PAP MPs. And on the question about the repayment of this $10 that was proferred by the senior officer to this man, may I assure the Minister that I knew about this long after the man had returned the $10 to this officer. [Laughter] I know you find it very funny. There is no question of this man having been advised by me to return the $10.

Mr Speaker: Mr Jeyaretnam, will you please sit down. There is no reason for you to make an excuse.

Mr Jeyaretnam: I am not making any excuses. He is giving wrong information.

Mr Speaker: But you are not asking any supplementary question. You are making excuses.

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: No, I am not accusing the Member for Anson. I just mentioned that he has been advised by someone.

On the Member's other question whether these four persons were PAP Members of Parliament, my answer is that one of them is a PAP MP and three are not. I am very reluctant to disclose the details for the simple reason that I do not want the parking wardens to misuse their authority by issuing tickets to the people for whatever reasons to cause them inconvenience. So I would like the public to know that wardens are not allowed to misuse their authority to inconvenience the public. Therefore, the public, if aggrieved, can appeal to the HDB and the HDB administration will take action against the wardens who have misused their authority. So I am quite reluctant to discuss who made the complaint to the HDB. If the Member for Anson is trying to debate on this, it may frighten the public away from writing to the HDB to provide the evidence or information on the misuse of authority by the wardens. Because the people may worry that if they write to the HDB and the warden goes to see the Member for Anson and the Member brings this matter up in Parliament, their names may be exposed. They would rather not get themselves involved in the debate or politicking of the Member for Anson. Therefore, I am very reluctant to give him the information.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Specious answers!

Mr Tan Soo Khoon (Alexandra): Sir, perhaps the Hon. Minister might not be too reluctant to enlighten this House as to who it was who provoked the warden to return the $10 which was so generously given to him by the senior officer.

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: Mr Speaker, Sir, I do not know.