Amidst all the comments on the Internet and local MSM on the review of ministerial salaries, I realise that there is sumethng missing.
If as expected the committee recommends major cuts to the salaries, another question arises.
Shouldn’t all those who served from the time the salaries were increased till the date the review changes took effect have a moral obligation to refund the amount deemed excessive? True, legally there is no need to make a refund. But if the ministers are servants of the people, then there is a valid moral argument that they repay the excess amounts?
There may be practical difficulties (ministers may have made bad investments and so may not have money to refund) but the issue is not a practical matter, it is a moral one.
So please take out yr chequebooks, ministers past and present who benefitted from the mega-salaries of the past.
Thoughts of a Cynical Investor 
It’s called a clawback in the financial world…hahah
This usually happens when the asset manager fails to deliver on subsequent investments and have to repay whatever bonuses/management fees they have received earlier…
Unfortunately, there are no clauses in their contracts for such an act…
Too bad, no legal clause in my contract to refund money. That’s what you get for being daft sheep and keep voting 60+% for PAPies. Just take this as another spur up your ass, chalk up another training & upgrading for you. In the meantime, don’t disturb me; let me retire to my $20M seaside mansion in the Bahamas…
Dream on. Meanwhile, if one were to make a rough guess say using $3m x12 years of President Nathan’s service, he would have fatten his wallet with approx $36m +/- of salaries by now.
Yet, as he was “selected” through a walkover by PAP, he didn’t feel beholden to the people, who are the taxpayers funding his palatial lifestyle. On top of that, Mr Nathan choose to hide behind “doing work quietly” just let it pass as if nothing had ever happened. Predictably the population are now even more enthusiastic, contemptuous and, when it came to tangible details about his achivements (or report card) he could even hand in his homework. And best of all, he’s not entirely sure he’s ready to quit and wants you to pay some more to buy his memoirs AFTER he leaves office for his KPI! He might as well say “Hello, please vote for me again – I supported the government, approved their moral compass that paid me to a full $4.2m salary + butler by raiding taxpayers money which I’m supposed to guard, but don’t know how much anyway.”
All I can say is that if he continues to foot-drag and not come forward and be transparent and accountable to the people of Singapore, then we will tell him that he can afford his own state funeral, and get a nice wreath with it too.
Refund?
Hah! We’ll be lucky to see even a 5% haircut.
George Yeo better get a high paying private sector job fast.
Then he can show Singkies just how underpaid he was as a Minister.
Of course if George Yeo decides to run for President …. then well … you draw your own conclusions.
I say tax 100% of their pension and (medical) benefits. The taxpayers have never agreed to the obscene pay to being with!