DEAL HAD TO BE BLOCKED WITH LEGAL BASIS
When more details later surfaced, the government had concerns over how a new entity could fulfil Income’s social mission under assurances provided to the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.
“Therefore, the two agencies came together to discuss how do we square both sides’ obligations, and then we presented the case to the Cabinet. The Cabinet discussed and decided that, given the conflicting interests both from the insurance point of view as well as from a social mission point of view, the deal could not go through. It has to be blocked,” said Mr Gan.
As such, the decision was made to amend the Insurance Act to give MAS the legal basis to block the Income-Allianz deal.
“We had a full debate on both parliament sittings, and even after the parliament sittings, MPs were at liberty to raise further parliamentary questions on this deal, if so, if necessary. I think there was ample opportunity for MPs to raise questions, and the debate was very comprehensive, quite a long debate, with many MPs raising questions, and we answered all the questions,” said Mr Gan.
“So I think the whole process was transparent and upfront, and we had opportunities for MPs to ask questions on all aspects of the deal, and I think we had settled the details there. And once the details were settled, we passed the Bill, and for reasons that the Workers’ Party have explained in parliament, they decided to abstain from the voting.”
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong also said that while the WP talked about the Income-Allianz deal in its rally the evening before, it was ultimately the government that stopped the deal, with MAS, chaired by his deputy Mr Gan, which proposed new legislation that enabled the government to stop the deal.
While ex-NTUC Income chief Tan Suee Chieh credited him and the government for the move, Mr Wong said “Actually he shouldn’t be crediting me”.
“He should be crediting Gan Kim Yong and MAS, because they amended the Insurance Act, in order that we have the legislative put a stop to the deal,” he said.
“So we are the ones who stopped the deal. We are the ones who ensured it didn’t happen. And we had a full debate in parliament on this, explaining the circumstances, explaining why we had to do what we did.”
