INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING (Overspending on building infrastructure)

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INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING:

(Overspending on building infrastructure): 9.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo asked the Minister for Education (a) if there are any steps in place to ensure that institutions of higher learning do not overspend on building infrastructure; (b) how does his Ministry moderate Government expenditure on building design and other infrastructure design; and (c) can the savings on recurring expenditure on design and maintenance be channelled to stave off the need to raise school tuition fees.

Mr Gan Kim Yong (for the Minister for Education): The Ministry of Education has an evaluation process to ensure that development spending by institutions of higher learning and, for that matter, by schools, provides educational benefit and is cost-effective.

MOE adopts cost norms that are established across the public sector. This is to ensure that building designs are primarily functional, not lavish, so as to avoid excessive building costs. For projects exceeding $50 million, MOE also seeks approval from the Development Planning Committee comprising three Ministers, including the Minister for Finance. This provides an additional layer of checks for bigger value projects.

MOE is mindful of the need to maintain good financial discipline, as we have to optimise the allocation and utilisation of the budget for MOE as a whole, and for each institution under the

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Ministry. This will ensure that the institutions' total costs would be kept down and thereby ease the pressure on significant fee increases over time.

Mr Zainudin Nordin (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Sir, with the development of infrastructures, such as the new campuses for ITE, what will the Ministry do to the old campuses of the ITE schools and buildings? What are the plans for such infrastructures?

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Sir, we are reviewing the utilisation of these campuses and, if they are not used by the MOE, they will be returned to the Government for other purposes. If they are required by the Ministry for other purposes, then we will continue to utilise them.

Assoc. Prof. Ong Soh Khim (Nominated Member): Sir, this is with respect to what the MOS has just mentioned about selecting building designs that are functional and not lavish so as to minimise building cost. I would like to find out whether the Government will actually consider the possible long-term maintenance cost and utility bills that will be incurred in the building design, because a cheap building design may incur huge maintenance costs. For example, we visited the Supreme Court and we were told by the Registrar that the monthly utility bills are very high.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Mr Speaker, Sir, I cannot answer for the Supreme Court. As for Ministry of Education buildings, as a guiding principle, the architects and the management involved are very conscious of maintenance costs. In fact, most of the schools, including the polytechnics and ITEs, have put in place energy conservation programmes to ensure that they do not inadvertently incur excessive energy costs.