Despite increasing train breakdowns, SMRT CEO Desmond Kuek yesterday (Mar 29) said he will not spend more money on maintenance works. The former army general claimed that 60% of the revenue income spent on maintenance is “very very high”:
“I think more than 60 per cent is already very, very high in terms of the proportion of the amount of revenue that we are able to generate that goes into maintenance-related expenditures. The portion of fare income used for maintenance is not expected to go higher. We don’t expect that this can go to 100 per cent, it will not be a sustainable way for us to manage so we will have to find the right balance.”
SMRT CEO Desmond said he will “extract productivity” from the workers and existing maintenance processes instead of committing more profits to maintenance works:
“To get more out of each fare dollar, Mr Kuek said that the company will explore productivity extraction in the future, but remains focused on its operational and maintenance regimes for now.”
The SMRT CEO also avoided discussion on his obscene salaries, where he last drew S$1.87 million in 2016. SMRT did not declare the CEO’s salaries.
SMRT CEO Desmond Kuek yesterday also issued a fake news claiming that “project-related delays” are not considered breakdowns and hence they are not calculated in the rail reliability formula. The Singapore government crony also boasted about achieving “zero delays” and “improving three times the reliability” by 2020.