Even SAF is Having Cost-Cutting Measures, But More ICTs Will be Resuming

COVID-19 has caused many organisations to cut cost.

In Goody Feed, we now pay our boss instead of the boss paying us. We sometimes help to pay the office bills, too.

We’re lucky because in some companies, there have been pay cuts and retrenchments.

If you’re one who’s not affected, then this should drive home the point.

Because even SAF is cutting cost.

SAF is Having Cost-Cutting Measures, But More ICTs Will be Resuming

For a start, NSmen in the last few months have been gaining weight because the fitness conditioning centres (FCCs), which are centres for NSmen to take their IPPTs / RTs / IPTs, have been closed since April, and will only reopen from September 2020.

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That could, theoretically, cut some costs for the SAF since they’d have to pay the NSmen for each personalised slimming session. It’s not a lot, but when you add in hundreds of NSmen coming to the four FCCs daily, it’s a lot of money.

But that’s not all: in-camp trainings for NSmen have also been cancelled (or deferred; God knows if it’s considered a cycle) in recent months. That is even more expensive: Ah Gong actually pays the full salary of the NSmen to the employers that in turn pay the employees. Do the maths and you’d know that bringing Ivan Lim back to haolian isn’t a cheap affair.

Today, Defence Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen gave an update about the situation in an interview which was meant to mark SAF Day, which falls on 1 July every year.

For a start, more ICTs will be resuming in the month ahead—so that means Ivan Lim can have more opportunities to tell others about his achievements.

So far, the last we know based on the NSmen in Goody Feed, the ones in August and September haven’t seemed to be cancelled—yet.

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Dr Ng admitted that due to COVID-19, Mindef would have to cut costs; not just this year, but maybe next year, too.

He said, “Mindef and the SAF are taking measures to cut costs where we can without compromising critical operations, or reduction in the SAF’s medium and long-term capabilities…but I think all of us know that we’ll have to tighten our belts for this year, and even the next year, until the economy fully recovers.”

However, the defence of Singapore won’t be compromised. After all, this isn’t the first time that Singapore is hit with an economy setback; for example, the 2009 also led to pressure in Mindef’s budget…but we still serve NS as usual.

He added, “But I would say that this Government and the people of Singapore have been very strong in their support, to give and to ensure that there is consistent resourcing for our defence needs.”

There have been some delays in the acquisitions of some helicopters and submarines though, but it’s unknown if it’s due to the tightened budget or the slowdown in production.

So what does this mean for us?

Nothing much, except that if you’re an NSman, you’d still need to go for ICT, and if you’re going to enlist…you’re still going to enlist.

Because the budget for Mindef this year is $15.09 billion—just $410 million lower than last year’s budget.

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