Photo: A Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldier standing guard at the entrance to the PLA's Hong Kong Garrison headquarters in August, 2014; AFP / Alex Ogle
Yesterday, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) responded to an enquiry about the extravagant sum of money spent on a single officer's English language course, which had come from Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Lina Chiam.
MINDEF had put out a tender on government procurement e-portal GeBiz for a personalised, one-on-one English course for an officer from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA). Out of the five or six companies that applied, one won the contract, which offered the 360-hour course for $25,900, an amount considered extravagant by taxpayers, as per reports. "All this was in strict compliance with government regulations," stated Defence Minister Dr. Ng Eng Hen in Parliament yesterday, after detailing the importance of such language courses for military exchange officers. "It's very useful for SAF (Singapore Armed Forces) to send our officers to attend the staff college courses of other militaries and vice versa. It will establish very good relationships with other countries' militaries and you'll understand their perspectives. And when incidents occur, they can be very useful resource persons," he said. "For these reasons, militaries all over have for many years exchanged officers to each other's courses to establish better ties."
But the language of instruction is usually the country's language, so the host usually offers proficiency courses, which Dr. Eng says is what Singapore is doing now for the PLA officer.
Photo: A Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldier standing guard at the entrance to the PLA's Hong Kong Garrison headquarters in August, 2014; AFP / Alex Ogle
Yesterday, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) responded to an enquiry about the extravagant sum of money spent on a single officer's English language course, which had come from Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Lina Chiam.
MINDEF had put out a tender on government procurement e-portal GeBiz for a personalised, one-on-one English course for an officer from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA). Out of the five or six companies that applied, one won the contract, which offered the 360-hour course for $25,900, an amount considered extravagant by taxpayers, as per reports. "All this was in strict compliance with government regulations," stated Defence Minister Dr. Ng Eng Hen in Parliament yesterday, after detailing the importance of such language courses for military exchange officers. "It's very useful for SAF (Singapore Armed Forces) to send our officers to attend the staff college courses of other militaries and vice versa. It will establish very good relationships with other countries' militaries and you'll understand their perspectives. And when incidents occur, they can be very useful resource persons," he said. "For these reasons, militaries all over have for many years exchanged officers to each other's courses to establish better ties."
But the language of instruction is usually the country's language, so the host usually offers proficiency courses, which Dr. Eng says is what Singapore is doing now for the PLA officer.