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Be thankful.
That's our dear mr teo ho pin's message to the residents of his town council whose money he has lost. Through investment in Lehman- linked structured debt obligations, the holland-bukit panjang town council has lost up to $12 million, greatly diminishing the $24 million it earned in the last six years. That's half of investment returns that the town council has lost. You would think that losing such a staggering amount would humble the town council. You would expect them to come forth and explain to their residents why so much was invested in these purported high-risk financial products. Instead, we are chastised by teo ho pin about how we should "be grateful" that this has happened, missing the point altogether. mr teo claims that the town council's "diversified portfolio" has enabled it to earn that $24 million instead of the $5 million that an entirely low-risk portfolio would have earned. From this, he says that we (the residents) should instead be thankful that the town council takes the effort to take greater risks for greater returns. Whose money are you investing, ho pin? Where is that accountability that you are supposed to show to your residents? Our initial unhappiness at the losing of up to 50% of returns from investment has been compounded by your arrogant and irrelevant answers to our questions. Those of us who did not know that the town council was investing our money call for transparency; you respond that you are within the rules. We ask for more information; you respond that you will inform us at a "timely time" (which is not an answer at all). Your "couple of percentage" of funds turned out to be 6.7% of your own town council's investment funds. That amounts to $8 million dollars (peanuts to you, maybe, but not to us). So I ask: to a government that is so concerned with percentages and figures, why is a loss of up to 50% of the total investment returns reaped in the last 6 years not a concern to our town council? And what gives you the right to be so arrogant to the very people you should now be accountable to? Labels: Lehman, teo ho pin, town council |
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