Local Government Integration Ordinance

Bill No. 180/1962

Read the first time on 27th June 1962.
An Ordinance to integrate certain functions of the City Council and the Rural Board with those of the Government of the State of Singapore and to provide for matters incidental thereto.
Be it enacted by the Yang di-Pertuan Negara with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of Singapore, as follows: —
PART I
PRELIMINARY
Short title and commencement
1.—(1)  This Ordinance may be cited as the Local Government Integration Ordinance, 1962, and shall come into operation on such date as the Yang di-Pertuan Negara may by notification in the Gazette appoint.
(2)  The Yang di-Pertuan Negara may appoint different days for the coming into operation of different Parts or provisions of this Ordinance.
Transitional provisions
2.—(1)  Any scheme, contract, document, licence, permission or resolution prepared, made, granted or approved under the Municipal Ordinance (Cap. 133 (1936 Edition)), the Local Government Ordinance, 1957 (Ord. 24 of 1957), and the Burials Ordinance (Cap. 212), shall, except where otherwise expressly provided in this Ordinance or in any other written law, continue and be deemed to have been prepared, made, granted or approved, as the case may be, under this Ordinance.
(2)  Notwithstanding the repeal of the Municipal Ordinance, the Local Government Ordinance, 1957, and the Burials Ordinance, any subsidiary legislation made under the said Ordinances, so far as such subsidiary legislation relates to matters falling within the scope of this Ordinance and is not inconsistent with the provisions of this Ordinance, shall remain in force within the respective areas of Singapore affected by such subsidiary legislation prior to the repeal of the aforesaid Ordinances and shall have the force of regulations made under this Ordinance until it has been revoked or replaced by subsidiary legislation issued or made under this Ordinance:
Provided that the Minister may by order vary, amend, extend or revoke such subsidiary legislation so remaining in force or any part thereof as he thinks fit.
Interpretation
3.—(1)  In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise requires —
“aerial sign” means any sign, representation, communication or advertisement visible against the sky from any street or public place or any sound audible therefrom made, exhibited or displayed by or by means of an aircraft or other means not attached to premises other than a sign, representation, communication or sound made, exhibited, displayed or used for the purposes of aerial navigation;
“arcade” includes verandah;
“building” includes any house, hut, shed or roofed enclosure, whether used for the purpose of a human habitation or otherwise, and also any wall, fence, platform, staging, gate, post, pillar, paling, frame, hoarding, slip, dock, wharf, pier, jetty, landing-stage or bridge, or any structure, support or foundation connected to the foregoing;
“City Council” means the City Council of Singapore originally incorporated by Indian Act No. 27 of 1857 and incorporated under and by virtue of the Municipal (Elections—Amendment) Ordinance, 1948 (Ord. 29 of 1948), with the status of a City conferred by Royal Charter dated the 24th day of July 1951, and as constituted under the provisions of section 6 of the Local Government Ordinance, 1957 (Ord. 24 of 1957);
“Competent Authority” means any Competent Authority appointed under section 3 of the Planning Ordinance, 1959 (Ord. 12 of 1959);
“Consolidated Fund” means the Consolidated Fund constituted by section 95 of the Singapore (Constitution) Order in Council, 1958;
[G.N. No. S 293/58.]
“dairy” includes any cowshed, milk-store, milk-shop or other place from which milk is supplied or in which milk is kept for purposes of sale;
“dwelling-house” includes a building or tenement wholly or principally used, constructed or adapted for use for human habitation;
“footway” includes foot-ways and verandah-ways at the sides of streets;
“garden refuse” means the refuse from garden and agricultural operations;
“Health Officer” means a Health Officer appointed under section 64 of this Ordinance and includes the Director of Medical Services, a Deputy Director of Medical Services, an Assistant Director of Medical Services and a Senior Health Officer;
“holding” means any piece or parcel of land held or possessed under an instrument of title, capable of being registered under the Registration of Deeds Ordinance (Cap. 255), or where applicable, under the Land Titles Ordinance, 1956 (Ord. 21 of 1956), relating exclusively thereto;
“house” includes dwelling-house, warehouse, office, counting-house, shop, school, and any other building in which persons are employed;
“market” means any place, other than a shop, ordinarily used for the sale of animals or of meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, poultry, eggs or other perishable articles of food for human consumption, and includes all land and premises in any way used in conjunction or connection therewith or appurtenant thereto;
“Municipal Provident Fund” means the Municipal Provident Fund established by the City Council under the provisions of the Municipal Ordinance (Cap. 133 (1936 Edition)) and continued and deemed to have been established under the Local Government Ordinance, 1957 (Ord. 24 of 1957);
“nuisance” means any act, omission or thing occasioning or likely to occasion injury, annoyance, offence, harm, danger or damage to the sense of sight, smell or hearing, or which is or is likely to be injurious or dangerous to health or property;
“occupier” means the person in occupation of the premises in respect of which the word is used or having the charge, management or control thereof either on his own account or as agent of another person, but does not include a lodger;
“owner” means the person for the time being receiving the rent of the premises in connection with which the word is used whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for any other person or as receiver or who would receive the same if such premises were let to a tenant and shall for the purposes of sections 46 and 55 of this Ordinance include a mortgagee not in possession and includes the person whose name is entered in the Valuation List authenticated under the provisions of section 12 of the Property Tax Ordinance, 1960 (Ord. 72 of 1960);
“a place of public resort” means a building or a defined or enclosed place used or constructed or adapted to be used either ordinarily or occasionally as a church, chapel, mosque, temple or other place where public worship is or religious ceremonies are performed, not being merely a dwelling-house so used, or as a cinema, theatre, public hall, public concert room, public ballroom, public lecture room, or public exhibition room, or as a public place of assembly for persons admitted thereto by ticket or otherwise, or used or constructed or adapted to be used either ordinarily or occasionally for any other public purpose;
“port” means a port within the meaning of the Merchant Shipping Ordinance (Cap. 207);
“premises” includes messuages, houses, buildings, lands, tenements, easements and hereditaments of any tenure, whether open or enclosed, whether built on or not, whether public or private, and whether maintained or not under statutory authority;
“private street” means any street not being a public street;
“public bridge” means a bridge which carries a public street;
“public street” means any street over which the public have a right of way which was usually repaired or maintained by the City Council or the Rural Board before the coming into operation of this Ordinance or which has been transferred to or has become vested in the Government under this Ordinance or in any other manner;
“Public Utilities Board” means the Public Utilities Board established by section 3 of the Public Utilities Ordinance, 1962 (Ord. — of 1962);
“regular line of street” means a line of street approved and shown on a Certified Interpretation Plan prepared and certified by the Competent Authority under the provisions of section 8 of the Planning Ordinance, 1959 (Ord. 12 of 1959), or a regular line of street prescribed by the Singapore Improvement Trust under the Singapore Improvement Ordinance (Cap. 259) or before 1st July, 1927, by the Municipal Commissioners of the Town of Singapore;
“Rural Board” means the Rural Board, Singapore, constituted under the Municipal Ordinance (Cap. 133 (1936 Edition));
“Singapore Improvement Trust” means the Singapore Improvement Trust constituted under the Singapore Improvement Ordinance (Cap. 259);
“sky-sign” means any erection consisting of a frame, hoarding, board, bar, pillar, post, wire or any combination of such things, or any erection of a like nature, or any visible object which floats or is kept in position by wire or other flexible attachment, displayed for the purposes of trade or professional advertisement in such a position as to be conspicuously visible against the sky above the general level of the roofs of surrounding buildings from any street or public place;
“stable refuse” means the dung or urine of horses, cattle, sheep, goats or swine, and the sweepings or refuse or drainage from any stables or cattle-sheds or places for keeping sheep, goats, swine or poultry;
“street” includes any road, square, footway or passage, whether a thoroughfare or not, over which the public have a right of way, and also the way over any public bridge, and also includes any road, footway or passage, open court or open allev, used or intended to be used as a means of access to two or more holdings, whether the public have a right of way thereover or not; and all channels, drains, ditches and reserves at the side of any street shall be deemed to be part of such street;
“street works” includes work of sewering, levelling, paving, metalling, flagging, kerbing, channelling, draining, lighting and otherwise the making good a street or part of a street;
“trade refuse” means the refuse of any trade, manufacture or business or of any building operations;
“Treasury” means the Minister charged with responsibility for finance in the State of Singapore and includes any officer under the administrative control or direction of the Minister;
(2)  In any written law and in any document whatsoever, unless the context otherwise requires, any reference to a local authority or the City Council or the Rural Board or any officer thereof, shall be construed as a reference to the Government, Minister or public officer for the time being, under and by virtue of this Ordinance, discharging the functions performed by such local authority, the City Council, Rural Board or any officer thereof, as the case may be, prior to the coming into operation of this Ordinance.
Exemption
4.  The Yang di-Pertuan Negara may by order published in the Gazette exempt any area or place from the operation of this Ordinance or of any provision thereof.
Transfer of Property, etc.
Transfer to Government of assets and liabilities of City Council and Rural Board
5.—(1)  Upon the coming into operation of this Ordinance, all lands, buildings and other property, movable and immovable, of the City Council and of the Rural Board at the end of the year 1960, including all assets, powers, rights, interests and privileges as well as debts, liabilities and obligations in connection therewith or appertaining thereto, other than those vested in and held by the City Council —
(a)for the purposes of the water, gas and electricity undertakings of the City Council as defined in section 39 of the Public Utilities Ordinance, 1962 (Ord. — of 1962); and
(b)in respect of all loans raised by the City Council by the issue of debenture stock and in respect of any other loans raised by the City Council for the purposes of the said water, gas and electricity undertakings of the City Council under the provisions of any Municipal Ordinance or of the Local Government Ordinance, 1957 (Ord. 24 of 1957), including the sinking funds created for the redemption of such loans,
shall be deemed to have been transferred to and vested in the Government without further assurance on the 1st day of January 1961.
(2)  The Minister for Finance may, by notification in the Gazette, direct that any of the assets and liabilities so deemed to have been transferred to and vested in the Government shall be transferred to and vested in the Public Utilities Board and the same shall be vested in the Board with effect from the date specified in such direction.
(3)  Any proceeding or cause of action pending or existing immediately prior to the coming into operation of this Ordinance by or against the City Council or the Rural Board in respect of the assets and liabilities transferred to the Government under this section may be continued and enforced by or against the Government, as it might have been by or against the City Council or the Rural Board, had this Ordinance not come into operation.
Public streets, sewers and bridges vested in the Government
6.—(1)  All public streets, public sewers, public canals, public surface and storm water drains and public bridges and the pavements, stones and other materials thereof, and also all erections, materials, implements and other things provided for the same shall be vested in the Government for the purposes of this Ordinance.
(2)  The Minister may declare by notification in the Gazette that any unnavigable river or stream outside the limits of any port, together with such means of access thereto and along the same as are set forth in the declaration, is required for the purposes of this Ordinance, and thereupon the river or stream including its bed specified in the declaration and the land forming the said means of access shall become vested in the Government and shall be maintained and cleaned at the expense of the Government.
(3)  The Government shall make full compensation to the owner of any land for any damage which such owner sustains by reason of any such declaration as in subsection (2) of this section mentioned and, if any dispute arises touching the amount of compensation, the same shall be ascertained in the manner hereinafter provided:
Provided that such owner shall not be entitled to any compensation for such damage under any other written law for the time being in force.
Property in lamps, etc
7.  Notwithstanding the provisions of Part IV of the Public Utilities Ordinance, 1962 (Ord. ... of 1962), the property of and in all the lamps, lamp-irons, lamp-posts, posts, chains, poles and rails in, about or belonging to all public streets and public bridges and of and in all iron, timber, stone, bricks and other materials and furniture and things belonging thereto and of and in all public standpipes except when the same is otherwise regulated by contract with the Government, shall be deemed to have been transferred to and vested in the Government with effect from such date not earlier than the 1st day of January 1961 as may be directed by the Minister for Finance.
Damage to property
8.—(1)  If any person wilfully removes, destroys or damages any property belonging to the Government by virtue of this Ordinance or acquired by the Government for the purposes thereof, or hinders or prevents such property from being used or operated in the manner in which it is intended to be used or operated he shall be guilty of an offence under this Ordinance and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars and a Magistrate’s Court may order him to pay compensation to the Government for any damage done by him.
(2)  Any private person may apprehend any person who in his view commits an offence against the provisions of this section and shall on such apprehension without unreasonable delay hand over the person so apprehended to a police officer.
(3)  Any person who carelessly or accidentally removes, destroys or damages any property belonging to the Government by virtue of this Ordinance or acquired by the Government for purposes thereof, or hinders or prevents such property from being used or operated in the manner in which it is intended to be used or operated shall pay by way of compensation to the Government such sum of money not exceeding one thousand dollars as a Magistrate’s Court thinks reasonable. Nothing in this subsection shall prevent the Government from taking legal proceedings for the recovery of the full amount of the damage caused by such person.
Transfer of employees, etc.
Transfer of employees
9.—(1)  Upon the coming into operation of this Ordinance, every person in the employment of the City Council who is not deemed to have been transferred to the service of the Public Utilities Board under the provisions of section 42 of the Public Utilities Ordinance, 1962 (Ord. ... of 1962), shall be deemed to be transferred to the service of the Government at the same rate of pay and, as near as may be, on the same conditions of service as those on which he was employed by the City Council:
Provided that in respect of those persons whose appointment to the public service is required by the Singapore (Constitution) Order in Council, 1958, to be made by the Public Service Commission, such transfer shall be subject to the approval of the said Commission.
[G.N. No. S 293/58.]
(2)  The service under the City Council of every person transferred to the service of the Government under subsection (1) of this section shall be deemed to have been service under the Government for the purposes and subject to the provisions of the Pensions Ordinance, 1956 (Ord. 22 of 1956).
Safeguarding of Provident Fund benefits
10.—(1)  Until Rules are made under section 12 of this Ordinance, the Municipal (Provident Fund) Rules, 1956, as from time to time amended, shall continue to apply to every person transferred to the service of the Government under section 9 of this Ordinance who, immediately prior to the coming into operation of this Ordinance, was a member of the Municipal Provident Fund, or would have been eligible for membership of the said Fund if he had attained the age of twenty years and had passed a medical examination of the standard prescribed, in the like manner as the said Rules applied to such persons immediately prior to the coming into operation of this Ordinance, and every reference to service or employment with the City Council in the said Rules shall be construed as a reference to service or employment with the Government in respect of such persons.
[G.N. No. S 179/56.]
(2)  Until Rules are made under section 12 of this Ordinance, the provisions of the Municipal (Provident Fund) Rules, 1956, as from time to time amended, requiring the City Council to make payments into the Municipal Provident Fund shall apply to the Government and be construed as provisions requiring the Government to make payments into the said Fund in respect of every person referred to in subsection (1) of this section who is or who becomes a member of the said Fund.
(3)  Persons who have been transferred to the service of the Government under section 9 of this Ordinance may count their previous service in the City Council, and their previous membership of the Municipal Provident Fund and their contributions to the said Fund, for the purpose of determining the benefits to which they become entitled under this section.
Continuance of Municipal Provident Fund
11.—(1)  The Municipal Provident Fund shall continue and be deemed to have been established under this Ordinance and shall be held, managed and administered as a Government fund separate from other Government funds.
(2)  Until Rules are made under section 12 of this Ordinance, the Municipal (Provident Fund) Rules, 1956, shall continue to have effect as though references therein to the powers and duties of the City Council in relation to the management and administration of the said Fund were references to the powers and duties of the Minister.
Municipal Provident Fund Rules
12.—(1)  The Minister may make such rules for the maintenance of the Municipal Provident Fund as he may consider desirable and, in particular, for the provision of payments or other allowances on death, resignation, retirement or discharge to persons who are members of the said Fund or who become members thereof, for the payment of moneys into the said Fund by the respective employers of the members of the said Fund, for the payment of contributions towards the management expenses of the said Fund by the said employers, for the contribution of moneys into the said Fund by the members thereof and for their ceasing to be members of the said Fund.
(2)  Subject to the provisions of subsection (3) of this section, no payments or other allowances on death, superannuation, resignation, retirement or discharge made or granted to persons out of the Municipal Provident Fund nor the rights of any contributor acquired thereunder shall be assignable or transferable or liable to be attached, sequestrated or levied upon for or in respect of any debt or claim whatsoever. No such payments or other allowances shall pass to the Official Assignee on the bankruptcy of such person, but if any such person is adjudicated a bankrupt or is declared insolvent by judgment of the Court, such payments or other allowances shall be deemed to be impressed with a trust in favour of the objects entitled thereto on the death of that person. The bankruptcy of a member shall not affect the making of deductions from the salary of the member under the rules of the Municipal Provident Fund, but notwithstanding the provisions of any written law such deductions shall continue to be made notwithstanding the bankruptcy and the portion of salary so deducted shall be deemed not to form part of the member’s after acquired property.
(3)  Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (2) and (4) of this section, the Minister shall be entitled —
(a)to deduct from the benefits (less such portion of them as shall with interest thereon have been contributed by the member) which would otherwise be payable to a member (or to the trustees or estate of a deceased member) from the Municipal Provident Fund any debt legally due from the member to the Government or his employer; and
(b)at his absolute discretion to deduct the whole or part of the benefits (less such portion of them as shall with interest thereon have been contributed by the member) which would otherwise be payable from the Municipal Provident Fund to a member (or to the trustees or estate of a deceased member) who is dismissed from the service of the Government or his employer after conviction for an offence involving dishonesty which results in pecuniary loss to the Government or his employer, or who would have been so dismissed had he not died, or who retires from or resigns his employment with intent to escape being so dismissed:
Provided that the amount so forfeited shall not exceed the amount of the pecuniary loss to the Government or his employer.
Any sum so deducted from the benefits which would otherwise be payable to a member (or to the trustees or estate of a deceased member) shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund or to his employer as the case may be.
(4)  Subject to the provisions of subsection (3) of this section, all moneys paid out of the Municipal Provident Fund on the death of any member shall be deemed to be impressed with a trust in favour of the objects entitled thereto under the will or intestacy of such deceased person, and shall not be deemed to form part of his or her estate or be subject to his or her debts but shall be deemed to be property passing on his or her death for the purposes of the Estate Duty Ordinance (Cap. 162).
(5)  Any member may by a memorandum under his hand appoint a trustee or trustees of the moneys payable on his death out of the Municipal Provident Fund and may make provision for the appointment of a new trustee or new trustees of such moneys and for the investment thereof. Such memorandum shall be in such form as may be approved by the Minister and shall be deposited with the Government.
(6)  If at the time of the death of any member or at any time afterwards there is no trustee of such moneys or it is expedient to appoint a new trustee or new trustees then and in any such case a trustee or trustees or a new trustee or new trustees may be appointed by the High Court or a Judge thereof.
(7)  The receipt of a trustee or trustees duly appointed or in default of any such appointment and of written notice thereof to the Government the receipt of the legal personal representative of a deceased member shall be a discharge to the Government for any moneys payable on his death out of the Municipal Provident Fund.