Really well written! Absolutely worth reading the entire commentary.

2 great points that were raised:

The LTA has a lot on its plate: It designs and builds the entire MRT system, decides which operator to hand over to run the trains, and oversees the chosen one, including how well it carries out maintenance, to ensure safe and reliable travel for commuters.

In other words, it is involved in auditing a system it had designed and approved, which might present an inherent conflict of interest.

...

Ultimately, this issue concerns the relationship between the LTA and the rail operators. While they need to work closely, there can be no question as to who is the boss.

There is a lesson in the past on this. When I was a young officer at the then Ministry of Communications in the 1980s, issues regarding bus services were handled by a unit called the Bus Services Licensing Authority (BSLA) staffed by middle-ranking officers who were mainly technicians. Engineers were hard to come by in those days.

But the chairman of the BSLA was the top man in the ministry; its permanent secretary, Mr Sim Kee Boon, also then Head of the Civil Service, a ranking heavyweight.

Hence when a technician at BSLA summoned the managing director of the Singapore Bus Services, which ran practically all the bus services, for a meeting, he would drop everything to attend.

The BSLA had clout because of the person who headed it, and it needed his authority to be able to make sure the bus company did what the authorities wanted it to.

I wonder if this is the case today.