Government funding of town councils: The role of private law

• Main Author: ONG, Benjamin Joshua
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2019
• Subjects: Singapore; town councils; contractual capacity; grants-in-aid; public-private divide; Public Law and Legal Theory
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/2945; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/4903/viewcontent/Government_Funding_of_Town_Councils___The_Role_of_Private_Law__repository_.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Section 42 of theTown Councils Act (Cap 329A, 2000 Rev Ed) provides for the Government toprovide grants to Town Councils “subject to such conditions as theMinister may determine”. The imposition of such conditions can beuseful in theory. However, there is no clear mechanism by which suchconditions may be enforced. This article proposes that this lacuna befilled as follows: such conditions are to take the form of private-lawrelationships between the Government and Town Councils. After outliningthe benefits of this proposal, the article critiques the Court of Appeal’sdecision in a 2016 case which held that such private-lawrelationships cannot exist as a matter of law, and explains why theproposal would be compatible with both the policy behind the Town Councilscheme and the terms of the Town Councils Act. The article ends bycommenting on how the proposal may be implemented in practice by means ofcontracts, trusts or bailments.