To be competitive in the world, Singapore must continually look for ways to improve efficiency and productivity. Technology can help us to achieve this. It has changed the way we live, work and play. Even the daily task of maintaining the cleanliness of your estate has gone hi-tech.

Bishan-Toa Payoh and Bukit Timah Town Councils have applied modern technology in carrying out its duties to ensure your common areas are well-maintained and free of defects. To help the Town Council’s Property Officers in their daily site inspection, a joint development project with Singapore Engineering Software, the Mobile Inspection Records System, or MIRS, was created.

It incorporates many features that serve the needs of the Bishan Toa Payoh Town Council and those of the residents. For example, information on a particular block’s defects and remedial action taken are stored in our data base and can be easily retrieved.

Instructions and messages are electronically organised. One of its special features is the auto-page function where upon downloading into the PC, the system will page the respective conservancy contractor to take immediate action. Using MIRS, the time taken to check and inspect an HDB apartment block has been reduced by 50%.

Residents, like you, stand to benefit from this. Your precinct will be better maintained because it now takes half the time to inspect one block of flats and faster response from the conservancy contractors to clean up the estate can be expected. Hence, the Town Council can provide a better service to residents by responding faster through MIRS.

After months of testing its new financial application system by the Town Council - Movex - I am pleased to say that the system has been operational since 1 October this year. Incorporating the latest IT features, Movex is Y2K compliant.

One example is the flow of information from the Town Council to our term contractors through the Internet. Works Order for repair of defects, can be emailed to the contractors, thus saving time and money. The cost of maintaining each block can be determined. The Town Council is studying the Financial Act to see if the service and conservancy charges can be levied according to the cost of maintenance.

I applaud the Town Council for embracing technology to benefit residents of Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC. Thank you and have a pleasant Sunday.

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