MPs told to keep ‘specific issues’ on AHTC out of debate

SINGAPORE — A disagreement over the handover of Punggol East accounts from the Workers’ Party-run Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) to Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council (PRPGTC) resurfaced during the debate on changes to the Town Councils Act on Friday (March 10), drawing sharp reminders from Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob and Senior Minister of State Desmond Lee to keep “specific issues” out of the debate.

During the debate, Member of Parliament (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC) Zainal Sapari, who is also PRPGTC chairman, had welcomed a new rule requiring outgoing town councils to provide the incoming town council with documents and other assistance after an election, and cited “poor practices” by AHTC to support his point.

The People’s Action Party had wrested Punggol East back from WP in the 2015 General Election. Following this, the “lack of documents and insufficient information” provided by AHTC hampered his town council’s ability to manage the town, Mr Zainal said.

“It was unfortunate that the poor practices and failure of compliance by AHTC then contaminated the entire set of accounts for the whole of PRPGTC, through no fault of our own.”

By Feb 24, about 15 months after the handover deadline, PRPGTC was receiving financial statements from AHTC for the third time, after discrepancies were identified the first two times. On Thursday (March 9), AHTC transferred S$4 million to PRPGTC, the last of the S$24 million meant to be transferred as part of the handover.

Rebutting Mr Zainal, AHTC chairman Pritam Singh (Aljunied GRC) argued that Mr Zainal could have approached him or Ms Sylvia Lim, who was AHTC’s chairperson at that time, to sort the issues out.

Mr Singh also noted that after WP had won Punggol East SMC after a by-election in 2013, its town council only received the final transfer of funds from PRPGTC some 18 months later. “I believe the deadline is not too different,” he said.

To this, Pasir Ris-Punggol MP Janil Puthucheary retorted: “The comparison is entirely false, because the reasons for the delays are entirely different.”

PRPGTC’s earlier delay, he asserted, was because of discussions about the terms and conditions of the handover. The recent delay by AHTC, on the other hand, was due to an inability by both sides to ascertain how much was to be transferred.

Despite Mdm Halimah and Mr Lee calling for order, stressing that the debate should be centered on “the principles behind the Bill” not “specific issues”, the fiery exchange between both sides reignited after Mr Charles Chong (Punggol East), speaking in support of the Bill, said it was only after PRPGTC served a letter of demand that AHTC paid back the S$4 million.

Mr Singh then said Mr Chong had made “certain insinuations which have to be corrected in public interest”, adding he was “surprised” to hear these complaints. The amendments to the Act were passed, but with all nine WP MPs voting against the Bill.