| By Robin Chan | ||
 |  | In July, Temasek had announced that Mr Goodyear (left) would be leaving the organisation due to unresolved strategic differences. -- ST PHOTO: JOYCE FANG |
FORMER chief executive-to-be Mr Charles Goodyear received no goodwill payment for his four months' work at Temasek Holdings the Finance Minister revealed in Parliament.
But after 25 minutes of grilling, the House emerged none the wiser over what exactly the strategic differences were that led to his sudden departure.
Members of Parliament threw question after question at Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam asking him to get Temasek to share with the public what went on behind the scenes but he would not budge.
He said that disclosing the information would serve no strategic purpose and that was not unlike the actions of other publicly-listed companies in the private sector.
'People do want to know, there is curiosity, it is a matter of public interest. That is not sufficient reason to disclose information. It is not sufficient that there be curiosity and interest that you want to disclose information,' he said in response to questioning from Mr Low Thia Khiang, opposition MP for Hougang.
He reiterated that the words in Temasek's statement to the public were carefully chosen and the Government would not add to that.
In July, Temasek had announced that Mr Goodyear would be leaving the organisation due to unresolved strategic differences.
Mr Tharman also said that hiccup in succession planning was a dent to Temasek's reputation. 'It is a very visible dent in the fender, no damage to body parts, no damage to the axle, no damage to the engine.'
And on the issue of choosing its next successor, Mr Tharman said that no timeline would be given and that ideally it would be a Singaporean, though that 'ideal is not always possible'.
He said that Cabinet ministers had keenly debated the issue of whether a foreigner should be the company's CEO. 'Ideally we should have a Singaporean as a CEO,' he said. 'Everything else being equal, when you look at two candidates who are equally suitable for the job, I think we should prefer to have a Singaporean.'
But he said the candidate has to be someone with direct experience managing global operations and that the choices are few amongst Singaporeans and even foreigners, who would have to be willing to work for a government-related organisation. 'I would much prefer and the Government position is that it would prefer not to restrict Temasek in its choice of CEO.'
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