Introduction
Government properties have a history of misappropriation due to lack of adequate policies and strategies that would help in managing the assets. The traditional aspects of managing public properties have failed since the implementation of the strategies have not developed and failure to take caution on matters affecting their management. The case of Singapore Government has been linked with misappropriation of government assets such as land and building which costs the government a huge amount of expenditure. Therefore, the government has taken the matter at hand in an effort of reducing the effect of asset misrepresentation thus; proposing new strategies such as employing an independent body and new technology invention that would help in utilization and management of public property. The following plan discusses possible procedures and platforms to be employed by a government in retaining the inflow of income generated from public properties without the need of disposal.
SWOT Analysis of the Current Situation
Property management has several issues affecting the delivery of equitable services to the community and profit maximization. The government of Singapore has reported a loss of profits and assets due to lack of managerial skills whereby the people responsible for Government Property Management have shown misappropriation that has led to the government making losses. However, the situation has worsened since the property managers are reported to undervalue the assets that would bring endless revenues to the state (Garmendia, Kapur and Kennedy 2013). Therefore, examining the SWOT analysis of the management would help in determining the possible solution to the underlying problem affecting the government.
The government should discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the property management department that has led to the decrease in value of the government assets.
Strengths
- The government is the sole proprietor and has the most properties in the state hence, giving them a zero competitive strategy.
- The government owns various build-ups in the state and controls the revenues generated.
- The government funds and regulates the operations of the assets and selects the managerial team that would enable the generation of income from the assets.
- The government has the right to dispose or purchase a new asset that is aimed at providing revenues and job opportunities to the public.
- The government has the authority to delegate the service to an independent organization that is able to implement new strategies in property management.
Weaknesses
- The government lacks a well-developed managerial system that would see the development of the department.
- It lacks a well-maintained information technology that would incorporate the documentation of all the government-owned assets and properties.
- Lack of experienced managerial team hinders the development of the department. Lack of the profit-oriented spirit makes the managers lag behind lacking the urge to make revenues.
- The need to write-off properties with the aim of acquiring instant revenues from sell-offs. The government opts to sell some of their properties when they need to raise a certain amount of revenues and forgets to account for the value of an asset in the long-run. Therefore, the managers fail to understand the importance of assets in profit making other than disposal revenues.
- The management department is misusing the revenues generated from the assets.
- The government has recently recorded an increase in state’s debt and the revenues generated from the assets could not cater for government spending. Therefore, the government is at risk of disposing quality assets in an effort of reducing their debt.
Opportunities
- The government can lease some of the assets for a fee that would help in minimizing expenses and maximizing profits.
- The growing number of urbanization would create more chances of revenue generating from the properties situated in major towns. Therefore, the Singapore Government would make significant profits from their properties.
- The increase in property appreciation rate would ensure an increase in revenues from disposing of assets. Lands have been appreciating at a higher rate recently offering an opportunity for the government to dispose their properties at a higher stake.
- The level of education and experience would help government officials to access new methods of managing government properties thus, enhancing expertise in managerial tasks.
Threats
- Inflation has challenged the value of currency leading to a fall in revenues generated by the government in their properties.
- Competition has changed since private developers are coming up with new businesses that offer stiff competition of the businesses owned by the government.
- Misappropriation of government funds by some officials who takes advantage of the government properties.
- The rise of property embezzlement affects the development and management of government properties.
Therefore, the discussed current situation and the SWOT analysis would see the point of having a redeveloped system that would help the delegated-private organization in revaluing their assets and change their ways of managing properties.
The Vision Statement of the Government Property Management
The government has the mandate to utilize the available resources in rejuvenating their strategies that would see adequate management of their properties. Therefore, their mission should include a responsive portfolio that could help in maintaining a steady reaction from ongoing obstacles. The system should have a clear documentation of every transaction accomplished with a set of evidence. Similarly, the vision of the government includes leveraging the properties as tools of supporting the culture of the community (Gipson 1994). The government should ensure meeting the expectations of the citizens in providing essential amenities by delegating their authority to an independent organization that would see a full utilization of government properties. The state has the role of providing infrastructure in the country hence; the revenues generated from the government properties should be utilized strategically. Additionally, the state’s vision includes the urge to deliver quality services to the population. They should ensure that every individual in the country should have access to affordable and equitable resources as well as develop the properties to fit in the new system of technology.
Mission Statement
The government aims at maximizing the revenues with minimal expenses as well as having a flow of income generating properties. However, the government property management team has failed in defining the mission of their organization as they have been lagging behind meeting their set of goals. Therefore, the independent property-managing organization should revisit their operations and set other new developed mission statements that would relate to new technology as well as cater for the needs of the population (Garmendia, Kapur and Kennedy 2013). Mission statement should cover the duties eligible to the government officials who would be accountable when their plans fail or when the organization reports losses instead of profits. The organization should dictate their mission as providing strategies in the acquiring, maintaining, disposing of, developing, and managing of government properties that aim at providing services and revenues to the state and the population. Therefore, the organization should aim at discussing the importance of their mission statement whenever their operations seem to exceed their expectations. The mission statement should also have new measures that would help in minimizing the costs of maintenance, expenses and should offer the highest standards of professionalism.
Corporate Values
The Government of Singapore works at a significant set of values. They believe in maintaining a business environment, but they always put their nation first. The objectivity of preferring the nation over any other entity is that the government has the mandate to ensure a steady operation of every business in the country. Similarly, the government takes the responsibility of maintaining the growth of the economy and avoiding inflation (Gipson 1994). Therefore, the government should have specific strategies that would help them acquire more wealth from their properties and minimize their expenses and embezzlement. Putting the Nation first would recommend that the government focus on revaluing the importance of the properties to the general growth of the economy. The strategy would see the government becoming solemn with their properties since they are the largest source of revenues in the Singapore country.
Innovation and dynamism should be on the core strategies in reinventing the technology department that would help in arriving at newly-developed informative communication. The strategy aims at providing advanced technology that would help to ease manual workload. Technology and innovation development should help in seeing the maximization of resources and easy access to information (Garmendia, Kapur and Kennedy 2013). For instance, technology innovation should help the government keep tracks of records and property ownership platforms. Therefore, the strategy would help the managing department in tracing every detail of their transactions as well as their properties. The government should as well treat their customers with respect. Customers play an important role in the sustainability of a business and would require the government to enhance the interaction between consumers and the managers in an effort of avoiding competition in the property leasing. Similarly, the government property management officials should be required to present integrity and professionalism in their place of work. Therefore, the ethics set by the government should help to identify reliable and trustworthy employees who would take the government to the next level of business.
Business Objectives
The government is the sole proprietor of almost all the major businesses and properties in Singapore. Therefore, they have the directive to delegate their control to an independent organization. The organization would set new objectives and policies that would generate adequate revenues. Their business objectives should include;
- The organization should ensure the businesses meet the regulations set by the government regardless of being government-owned.
- Purchasing of new properties should be made at an open documentation where evidence and trustees must be available for seconding of the consent.
- Proper documentation of business operations stating how revenues are made as well as how expenses are handled.
- To enhance utilization and updating of computer programs that helps in networking their operations.
- To meet the expectations of government policies and procedures in maintaining and acquiring new assets.
- To have a proper documentation and review of the properties they want to dispose of as well as reviewing their value before disposing.
- Updating the policies and procedures of the company to keep track of the development of the technology.
- Minimizing the number of unnecessary employees who could be replaced with technology and elimination of ghost workers to reduce the cost of expenses. To ensure that the excess properties have been exposed in a professional procedure. The organization should first revalue the price of the property before placing a bid for procurement (Gipson 1994).
- Similarly, the management should revalue the cost of disposing of comparing to the revenues projected to be made from the property, and if they exceed the later, then the property should not be sold.
Key Strategies
The government’s independent organization should focus on new strategies that would help in reaching their goals. The new strategies would include obtaining and enhancing new technology innovation, enhancing commercial standards, employment of skilled professionals, and global programs in enlightening the officials.
Technology Innovation
The strategy aims at improving the usable equipment that would help the independent department in reaching their desired progress. Technology has developed extensively in the recent financial years, and investors have been seen utilizing the resources to maximize their revenues and ease their operations (Kriner and Eryan n.d). Therefore, the organization should take the chance and implement newly developed techniques that would see the development of the property management organization. For instance, the use of electronic storage system rather than manual data entry would help the organization in keeping track of every property in the entity. Similarly, the organizations would decrease the costs of bookkeeping and other manual work hence reducing the number of employees. The system would also increase credibility and accountability since the program software enhances the level of accuracy.
Commercial Standard Development
The standards that regulate the operations of various industries are always written by major scholars and other business individuals to enhance uniform operations within similar businesses. Therefore, the Independent Housing and Planning department has a set of standards they follow and edit to suit their degree of business. However, these standards keep changing to suit current issues in the business giving a chance to managers to tailor them to suit their preferences (Garmendia, Kapur and Kennedy 2013). The independent organization should take the initiative of editing the existing policy standards to make better use of them in their ongoing business. Therefore, the managers have the right to implement prospective measures that would benefit the operations of the property management business. Commercial standards help the organization to have a mode of operational flow where managers act according to the set standards. The standards act as guidance to their operations.
Skilled Professionals
A company having the best managers always report significant progress in their operations. The organization should be led by professional experts who should show expertise in dealing with current issues of the business. The leaders should also receive appropriate training from the government on matters affecting the development of the organization. Therefore, the selection of capable leaders should be based on the academic accomplishment that would help the management team reaching their organizational goals and objectives. Similarly, studies have revealed that the failure of a company is contributed by incapable management (Kriner and Eryan n.d). The government should organize seminars and meetings with other skilled professional leaders at every department. The seminars would act as a training program where leaders from successful organizations would come and share their managerial knowledge to the governmental organization.
Major Goals
The property management should focus on their main goals of the business. The major one is the need for profit maximization. Every business is set to generate revenues except the Non-profit organizations. However, the goals of a company would never be implemented if the managers would not set strategic plans for goal accomplishment. A system of accomplishing set goals helps managers in identifying the area that needs to be revisited. The strategy is known as S.M.A.R.T which is the abbreviation of Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely-bound. The plan would see the accomplishment of ever goals set to develop the operations of the independent organization. The basic major goals include;
Profit maximization
The government aims at maximizing profits from their properties as well as ensuring a flow of finance in the government. Therefore, their property business should be their priority in maintaining a steady flow of revenues. The government has minimal competition from other companies since most properties owned by the government are secluded for public recreation, schools, and other social amenities (Garmendia, Kapur and Kennedy 2013). Therefore, most projects are not direct profit businesses but offer a significant amount of revenues to the government. Therefore, management of government-owned properties is an easy task bearing in mind that they do not compete with others. The government should focus on maximizing their revenues from different projects as they plan for maintaining a steady flow of operations.
Provision of services to the public
The public has a sense of security when it comes to government-owned properties. These properties help the public in many occasions and access to other social amenities. For instance, the government provides with recreational centers such as schools, playgrounds, or stadiums (Kriner and Eryan n.d). Other social structures such as roads, highways and building are owned by the government but do not generate revenues directly. However, they do help the growth of economy because the public can access markets and other job opportunities that boost the development of the economy. Therefore, the government should place property management as their priority since it is the main source of revenues that helps in the development of the economy.
Strategy Map
The government should focus on creating a platform that the managers of the organization should follow with the aim of arriving at their prospected goals and objectives. The strategy map should define every task and the subsequent end point or end product (Kriner and Eryan n.d). Strategy plan/map is a model used by experienced managers in drawing the stages of business operations before reaching to their prime status.
The strategic map begins from the lowest level of understanding the concepts and the needs of the consumers. The managers should define and realize what the customers look for in their products and services. Therefore, the property management organization should focus on improving learning and growth of the bottom line of the company. Enhancing learning in the employees would increase their productivity, who would later develop to minimize waste of time, resources, increase customer’s satisfaction, hence; improving consumers ‘confidence with their services (Garmendia, Kapur and Kennedy 2013). Therefore, the overall strategic map would lead to the increase of profits and customers satisfaction. The map would develop from learning, then to the internal processes, to the customer’s feedback, and lastly to the financial development.
Figure 2: Balanced Scorecard (Arverson 2003)
Balanced Scorecard
A well-prepared Scorecard defines the perspective of the company as well as what every stakeholder needs from a business. Customers play an important role in business thus; the need for a customized scorecard is essential in predicting the performance of an entity (Arveson 2003). Similarly, the scorecard aims at summarizing the company’s strategies in profit maximization as well as maintaining a flow of operations.
Customer Perspective
- Objective – Customer Fulfillment
- Measure – Quality
- Definition – Measures the extent of customer satisfaction with the quality of property management.
- Data Source: Customer Survey.
- Data invention: Accomplished using the standardized survey instrument.
- Data authentication: Managers are responsible for the accuracy of data.
- National Target: consumer contentment.
- Measurement Formula: Customers response to the survey is claiming satisfaction.
Business Perspective
- Objective – Property Management superiority
- Measure – Property Management Accounting
- Definition – Measures how the property is subjected to a physical inventory.
- Data Source – physical Inventory results and supporting documents.
- Data creation – Inventory data is documented manually or by an automated system.
- Data certification – Managers are accountable for the correctness of data and preservation of reports.
- National Target – Highest Accuracy Rate.
- Measurement Formula – Amount of Property subjected to Physical Inventory.
Roadmap
Managers always take a trip to the physical counting of inventory. Land and buildings must be verified through physical counting or visibility for an actual documentation of the government properties. Therefore, some steps are conducted t ascertain the existence of properties.
- The reason for physical counting – the manager should have a reason behind the need for counting the existence of properties. Similarly, the manager would require ascertaining their existence before documenting them in the books of accounts.
- The process could take place at any time but the best time to conduct a product counting is at the end of a financial year or when the government wants to dispose of the property.
- The process would be aimed at counting several products at a go but many a times managers take one instance in physical counting for all the properties in question. However, the managers would recommend starting with a similar property before going to another type of product. For instance, they should start with lands before going to the buildings.
- Large properties such as land and buildings are easy to find, and the managers only use documents and location to visit the places.
- Anyone in the management can participate in finding the assets regardless of their position. However, physical evidence must be produced and their original documentation to show their existence and ownership.
- The managers conducting the process should reconcile the properties with their actual documents to ascertain the ownership and existence. Valuation should be done later in the process.
- The information collected from the field should be presented to the government officials for final adjustment.
- The final report should be presented to the officials responsible for the development of the properties.
Strategic Action Program (30-60-90-Day)
- Objectives (30 days) – Understanding the concept of public owned properties controlled by the government.
- Assessment (60 days) – Conducting a physical presence of the assets as well as their books of revenue to assess whether they generate income or incur expenses.
- Optimization (90 day – Change the perspective of government officials who believe disposing assets is a benefit to the organization but in contrast, asset valuation should first be considered to ascertain whether the property generates long-run income compared to the instant selling cash.
- Planning – the report should be planned adequately to produce reliable results that could change people’s perspective.
- Measurement – the managers should measure the available statistics of information gathered from interviews, physical counting, and property valuation.
Figure 2: Key Tasks to Complete
Conclusion
The government has tried to work from generating income at the expense of disposing of inherent properties that could become assets in the future. However, asset management has a lot to do with the strategies employed in the realization of an endless revenue generation. Managers have been asked to join other scholars in learning new ways of managing government-owned properties to help boost the economy of Singapore Country. The available strategies help the government realizes their property worth as well as realizes new ways of regenerating wealth without disposing of the surplus properties. Managers should focus on the means of maintaining wealth creation and support the goals of the government.
Bibliography
Arveson, P, 2003. ‘Building A Government Balanced Scorecard’, Balanced Scorecard Institute 19(5), pp. 1-23.
Garmendia, C, Kapur, A, and Kennedy, JF 2013. ‘Enhancing Government Property Management with Data and Technology’, A Policy Analysis Exercise, 14(2), pp. 1-17
Gipson, T 1994. ‘Strategic Planning in Property Management’, An Essential Element of a Successful Property Management Organization, 17(3), pp, (16-17)
Kriner, B and Eryan, LE n.d. ‘The Physical Inventory Plan – A Road Map to Success’, The Property Professional, 20(3), pp. 1-4
