Applications that Have Not Complied with National Arts Council's Funding Guidelines
Ministry of Culture, Community and YouthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Ms He Ting Ru’s inquiry into the statistics and grounds for non-compliance with National Arts Council (NAC) funding guidelines, as well as the outcome of subsequent appeals. Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong Chun Fai clarified that NAC assesses applications based on artistic merit, public engagement, and alignment with strategic priorities like Our SG Arts Plan. He stated that non-compliance cases are primarily administrative, such as unmet deliverables or exceeded funding caps, and have been on a downward trend over the last five years. The Minister highlighted that NAC conducts regular project check-ins to pre-empt non-compliance and considers appeals based on strong mitigating factors, such as the impact of COVID-19. As a steward of public funds, NAC prioritizes projects that achieve national and social objectives while ensuring accountability through its publicly available grant guidelines.
Transcript
33 Ms He Ting Ru asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) in each of the last five years, how many applicants for funding by the National Arts Council (NAC) are found to have not complied with NAC's funding guidelines; (b) what are the grounds under which they are found not to have complied with the funding guidelines; (c) how many applicants have appealed against such decisions; and (d) how many appeals have been successful.
Mr Edwin Tong Chun Fai: The National Arts Council (NAC) provides funding to artists and arts groups in a number of areas. First, to support organisational development of professional and strategic arts organisations; second, to produce or present art and encourage Singaporeans' participation in the arts; third, to build audiences, patrons and supporters to complement artistic efforts at home and abroad; fourth, for the training, research and development of artists across various fields; and fifth, to support the needs for art spaces through subsidies. From 2020 to 2022, NAC has also disbursed additional COVID-19 relief grants under the Arts and Culture Resilience Package.
Grant applications are assessed based on guidelines that are publicly available on the NAC website. The guidelines inform applicants of the conditions of the grant, such as the scope, eligibility, application process and assessment criteria. Besides the artistic strengths of each project application, NAC also considers aspects, such as public engagement as well as capacity and commitment in the execution of the project. As a steward of public monies, NAC is accountable for the use of funding towards achieving national and social objectives. Given the increasing number of grant applications over the years, NAC would also prioritise projects that are aligned to NAC's strategic priorities, such as the ones articulated under Our SG Arts Plan.
In the last five years, there have been cases where applicants were found to not comply with NAC's funding guidelines. These are largely administrative in nature, such as applicants who did not meet the agreed deliverables or had exceeded their funding cap. However, the number of such cases has been on a downward trend.
NAC takes into consideration appeals where there are strong mitigating reasons, such as the impact of COVID-19. Regular check-ins are also conducted by NAC on the projects' progress, to pre-empt and mitigate cases of non-compliance as much as possible.