Understanding Your Organisation: Town Council

Objective

The blog aims to share how business continuity management or BCM can be implemented and integrated into Town Councils. As the roles and functions of town councils may vary depending on region and country, the core mission of the town council remains fairly unchanged. A town council in Singapore is used to provide context in this blog. 

The start of any BCM implementation based on the ISO 22301 BCMS standard starts with the "Understanding Your Organisation".  This is where we provide an understanding of the "Town Council" in Singapore and the functionality within each town council.

What is a Town Council?

A town council often refers to the local government of a town in countries such as the United Kingdom or Australia.  In Singapore, town councils are in-charge of maintaining the common areas of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats and estates, such as the common corridors, void decks, lifts, water tanks, external lighting and the open spaces surrounding the estates. 

Figure 1: Town Councils in Singapore (Source: www.towncouncil.sg)

Contactable Office (Premise)

Marine Parade Town Council was inaugurated on 5 July 1989 following the passage of the Town Councils Act in 1988. (MPTC, 2019a)  MPTC has two contactable offices according to their Contact Information on their website. (MPTC, 2019c) However, other Town Councils such as Ang Mo Kio Town Council can have four contactable offices, revealing that this number may vary from Town Council to Town Council. (AMKTC, 2019)

The contactable offices will serve as a start point for the scoping of the BCM project. Once the types of disasters affecting the town council are identified, one of the disaster scenarios will be the denial of access to these premises.

Organisation Structure of Town Council

According to Figure 2, Marine Parade Town Council is divided into three levels.

Figure 2: Marine Parade Town Council’s Hierarchy 

Source: http://www.mptc.org.sg/About-Town-Council-Members

While the Chairman is at the top, the Chairman is rarely directly involved in the matters of the Town Council. Not listed are the ‘Key Officers’, that include managerial positions more directly related to Town Councils such as the General Manager and the Senior Finance Manager. These positions are managed by a Secretary that exists within the Executive Committee.

The understanding of the structure will allow the project management team to be appointed and then, transform itself into a program office once the BC Planning project is over.  The structure and appointees of the BCM Steering Committee, Organisation BCM coordinator, Business Unit BCM Coordinator can be contextualized to the current structure as highlighted in Figure 2.

Reading "Business Continuity Management: What is My Role?" may help you understand the BCM roles within the town council.

Town Council Functions

• Up keeping of cleanliness and routine maintenance of common property such as void decks, common corridors and lift areas;
• Building maintenance;
• Maintenance of landscape grounds within the estates (e.g. grass cutting);
• Provision of cyclical repairs to estate amenities, repainting of blocks and re-roofing;
• Maintenance of mechanical and electrical installations such as lifts, water pumps, switch rooms and lighting (e.g. repairing faulty lights in common areas, lift rescue services); and
• Provision and upgrading of amenities such as link ways, lift lobbies, playgrounds and residents' corners (provision of amenities such as covered walkways, playgrounds).

The business functions highlighted mainly focus on "customer" facing and it should include the business functions that is required for the operations of the town council.  These includes human resources, finance and administration.

Another consideration to further understand the organisation, is to identify the types of events that may disrupt the town council ability to continue its roles and responsibility. 

Crises in Town Councils

• Cyber attacks;
• Loss of data;
• Economic loss; and
• Reputation loss.

Disasters in Town Councils

Like crises, disasters can hinder an organization. However, in such events, access to facility and infrastructure is denied.

Disasters relating to Town Councils can include:

• Fires;
• Floods or another type of severe weather-related conditions;
• Terrorist attacks;
• Loss of information technology services;
• Pandemic Diseases; and
• Denial of access or damage to facilities.

If you find crisis and disaster confusing, this article "What is Crisis Management Vs Business Continuity Management? Often Confused" may help you understanding the concept better.

BCM Planning Methodology

The next blog will provide you with the "Planning Steps for Implementing BCM for Town Council".  You will have an good overview of the steps to be taken and lastly, what competency should you have with funding from the Singapore government.

References

AMKTC. (2019). Ang Mo Kio Town Council - Contact Us. Ang Mo Kio Town Council, (Apr). Retrieved from https://www.amktc.org.sg/contact.aspx