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SINGAPORE: The SMRT board has appointed its independent director Ong Ye Kung to head an internal investigation into the recent train disruptions. Mr Ong will lead a team of internal and external experts to conduct the investigation. ...
SINGAPORE: The SMRT board has appointed its independent director Ong Ye Kung to head an internal investigation into the recent train disruptions.
In a statement, the board apologised for the series of disruptions, describing it as an "unprecedented scale" since SMRT started operating trains 24 years ago.
Mr Ong is the deputy secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress, and Chairman of the Employment and Employability Institute.
He was also the People's Action Party (PAP) candidate for Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) in the recent General Election.
Mr Ong, who has been an SMRT independent director since 2006, said he would make sure the probe would find the reasons for the disruptions and rectify them.
"Secondly, it's to make sure that when it comes to emergency response, we have the adequate SOP procedures in place so that if ever another emergency happens again, we're in a better position to respond," he said.
"I also look after the union, the company. It means I can harness feedback from staff, from managers, about what went right, what went wrong during the disruption.
"At the end of the day, when we have a set of recommendations, we can also ensure widespread buy-in, implementation so that we can restore public confidence in the reliability and safety of the system."
SMRT said it will work closely with regulator, the Land Transport Authority (LTA), to restore service levels as quickly as possible without compromising safety.
It will require SMRT to provide all maintenance records, operations and system logs, as well as information on its emergency response and incident management.
This is to help LTA understand the likely causes and contributing factors to the disruptions and the implementation of its contingency plans, and for improvements to be made.)