Town council’s financial position ‘being used as a political tool’

SINGAPORE — Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council’s (AHPETC) financial position is being used as a political tool by the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) to fix the Opposition and punish its voters, charged the Workers’ Party (WP) yesterday (Sept 2) at its first rally for this election.

In arguing its case, speakers at the rally, which was held in a field in Hougang Central last night, went from parrying away assertions that had been made by the PAP, to crying foul over double standards applied to its town council.

The party’s candidate for the Hougang single-seat ward, Mr Png Eng Huat, who is one of AHPETC’s two vice-chairmen, took pains to counter various issues relating to the town council’s finances for which the PAP has since 2013 been pressing for answers.

Mr Png said the PAP’s Members of Parliament were effectively “baying for (the Opposition’s) blood” with its previous declaration that the Hougang Town Council was in the red when the WP took over the running of Aljunied.

Audit reports of the merged entity in financial year 2012 showed that Hougang Town Council had a surplus of S$82,000 when its accounts were combined with those of Aljunied Town Council, but the PAP “conveniently left (this) out”, he added.

“It is highly mischievous of the PAP to make such a statement to alarm the residents of Aljunied, Hougang and Punggol East ... This is the hallmark of a one-party state, where the ruling members can withhold a fact and get away with murder,” said Mr Png.

He refuted National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan’s “careless remark” that AHPETC stopped operating in the red only after its contract with its managing agent, FM Services and Solutions (FMSS), ended, saying the turnaround had been achieved even as the contract was running.

On Monday, Ms Sylvia Lim, who is chairperson of the WP as well as AHPETC, said the town council would have run a surplus of S$1.7 million in the financial year 2014/15 if the S$7.2 million in government grants had not been withheld from it.

Last week, the Ministry of National Development (MND) accused FMSS, which is owned by a couple who are WP supporters and who also held management roles in AHPETC, of “grossly profiteering” from the town council, highlighting similarities between the firm’s profits and AHPETC’s deficits each year.

“I am shocked that the PAP had stooped so low,” said Mr Png. “The PAP is trying very hard to paint the WP as a party that will reward its friends with contracts. Let me state this in no uncertain terms: The WP has never set up any two-dollar private limited company to do business with the town council.”

The WP is now directly managing AHPETC, after its contract with FMSS expired in July.

Mr Png and fellow AHPETC vice-chairman, Mr Pritam Singh, also drew parallels between the AHPETC saga and a separate case involving the People’s Association (PA) in which lapses were found and flagged by the Auditor-General.

Despite having been given an unfavourable opinion by auditors on its accounts from 2008 to 2013, the PA nevertheless received year-on-year increases in government grants, noted Mr Png.

In contrast, grants given to AHPETC were withheld just after two years of qualified audit reports. In audits, adverse opinions are more negative than qualified opinions.

Mr Png said: “I guess fixing the Opposition is more important to the PAP than fixing the MRT or the hospital-bed shortage, and improving the Singa­porean core in our workforce.”

The PAP has used the town council system several times to “arrest support for a more plural and democratic Singapore”, said Mr Singh, who cited the case in 2012 involving Action Information Management (AIM), a computer software firm owned by the PAP that provides services to town councils. That year, AHPETC received poor ratings in the Town Council Management Report, which Ms Lim attributed to the termination of the town council’s IT contract with AIM.

“Could (town councils) have been structured with a dual purpose to teach Singaporeans a lesson, to punish them for exercising democratic rights when they vote for the Opposition?” questioned Mr Singh.

Ms Lim, who was last to take the stage, echoed the question of why the Government has been subjecting AHPETC to “microscopic scrutiny”.

“After the WP took over Aljunied Town Council, our residents’ lives went on as normal,” she said, adding that the town council has received good ratings in estate maintenance.

She also countered allegations that FMSS was profiteering from AHPETC, saying the public had no idea about the amount of profits earnt by managing agents of the PAP’s town councils.

“Is the MND saying that all town councils are to check on their contractors’ profitability before confirming contract prices? Does the MND do that with their own contractors?” Ms Lim asked.

The PAP is trying to “make it painful for other political parties to succeed in town council management, so that the public will be afraid of voting for other parties”, she said, adding that it would be a setback for Singapore’s political development if only one party can manage town councils at the Group Representation Constituency level.