Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) possibly should be the first big listed company to reveal the exact take-home pay of its senior management, instead of merely providing salary bands.

How, I hope that other malaysian and singaporean public listed companies and in particular the government-linked companies can follow suit.
To start with, it is interesting to note that in the first place,such precise disclosure is not at all necessary in Singapore but a must for financial reporting in Australia for the five biggest earners.
Secondly, this exact disclosure still followed through even though earlier last year, the Singapore Finance Ministry has rejected calls for the non-mandatory Code of Corporate Governance to include recommendations for listed companies to disclose all directors’ fees in detail. The reasons given then were that companies feared dissatisfaction among directors, an upward ratcheting of fees, and the poaching of its key personnel.SingTel’s decision to lay bare the precise figures poised an extremely good start for good corporate governance. The move hopefully should create a perception of greater accountability and transparency. It acts as a reaffirmation that the formal and transparent procedure put in place to fix the remuneration packages for individual directors is working, and there are no hidden agendas which will definitely make the investors happier. In a nutshell, investors now should not quibble with paying good people for good performance.

As reported in the SingTel’s annual report for the year ended March 31, 2006 the following reflects the way the giant telco rewarded its top executives after the financial results are out:-

• Mr. Lee Hsien Loong, whose total pay package, was $4.56 million including performance shares. His total remuneration comprises cash and benefits of $2.22 million – which is 4.2 per cent higher than in the previous year — as well as an award of up to 1.64 million performance shares with a fair value of $2.34 million;
• Mr. Paul O’Sullivan, chief executive of SingTel Optus in Australia. He received a total of $3.46 million in cash and shares, up from the previous year’s range of $2.75 to $3 million;
• Mr. Allen Lew was in third place with $3.18 million for his stint as Optus’ managing director of the consumer division up till January, when he was promoted to chief executive of SingTel’s Singapore operations. This is up from the $2.25 million to $2.5 million he got in the previous year;
• SingTel group chief financial officer Chua Sock Koong, who recently also took on the portfolio of chief executive of SingTel’s International operations, raked in $2.92 million, up from $2 million to $2.5 million in the previous year and
• Mr. Lim Chuan Poh, SingTel’s executive vice-president for Strategic Investments was paid $1.46 million, while Mr. William Hope, SingTel’s executive vice-president for Networks (Australia), and was paid $1.3 million. Previous year’s pay for Mr Lim and Mr Hope were not available.