The proposed agreement between Income Insurance and Allianz was only made known to the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC)’s central committee when it was announced in parliament, according to deputy secretary-general Desmond Tan on Wednesday ( October 16 ).
Responding to questions from MPs during the debate on the Insurance ( Amendment ) Bill, Mr Tan, who is also senior minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office, said that NTUC is a major shareholder of NTUC Enterprise, but does not get involved in the day-to-day running of operations.
He claimed that NTUC Enterprise and Income Insurance had provided the central committee with information regarding the” strategic principles” for the deal, but that the central committee had not heard about the investment reduction strategy.
” In reality, the key council and myself just knew of this on Monday at the governmental statement”, said Mr Tan.
The proposed Income-Allianz deal aimed to reduce the amount of funds held by Income and return some S$ 1.85 billion to owners in three years.