PAP yet to clarify Punggol East’s financial position: WP

SINGAPORE — As they prepare to hand over the management of Punggol East estate to the People’s Action Party (PAP), Workers’ Party (WP) chairman Sylvia Lim said she would continue to seek answers on the estate’s financial position after the 2013 by-election — an issue which erupted over the last few days of campaigning before Polling Day.

Speaking to reporters at her first Meet-the-People Session after the General Election, Ms Lim said the PAP has yet to provide a “definitive clarification” on why Punggol East would be in a deficit position if the Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council had some S$1.7 million in surpluses, as claimed by the ward’s new Member of Parliament (MP), Charles Chong.

Said Ms Lim: “Even if we take what he says at face value, at the point of handover, (Punggol East) should have had a pro-rated share of the S$1 million surplus anyway, but what we see from the accounts handed over to us at that time was that there was a deficit.”

A clarification is important to ensure accounts handed back to the PAP are accurate, she added.

The Town Councils Act allows up to 90 days for the handover. Ms Lim said the WP will update on their plans on taking up the Non-Constituency MP (NCMP) seats “in a couple of days” once it is informed by the Elections Department as to who is eligible.

NCMP seats are usually offered to the losing opposition candidates with the highest percentage of votes in a General Election. Ms Lee Li Lian, who lost to Mr Chong by 1,156 votes, said she does not plan to take up the position.

Ms Lim said that she understood Ms Lee’s decision.

“If you are an elected MP, and the voters have decided not to re-elect you as the MP for the constituency, then I think it does not make sense for you to stay on as an NCMP. Because I think the voters’ decision has to stand also,” she said.

Ms Lim declined to comment on the party’s performance in specific wards in Aljunied GRC, but added the election outcome was a “setback in terms of possible party renewal” and the party would have to think of “the appropriate way to move forward”.

None of the party’s new faces were elected into Parliament.