PRPTC files suit against WP MPs, town councillors

SINGAPORE — Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council (PRPTC) is taking three Workers’ Party (WP) leaders, Ms Sylvia Lim, Mr Low Thia Khiang, and Mr Pritam Singh, to court, following a similar lawsuit brought against the trio in July by Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) over alleged improper payments.

In a statement on Monday (Sept 11), PRPTC said it has begun proceedings in the High Court against the same eight defendants identified in the AHTC suit “for the claims and reliefs relating to Punggol East at the material time”.

It added that the facts and circumstances which are the subject of its claim “overlap with the facts and circumstances” which are the subject of AHTC’s claim.

The defendants in the AHTC suit include the three WP Members of Parliament, AHTC councillors Mr Chua Zhi Hon, Mr Kenneth Foo Seck Guan, Ms How Weng Fan, as well as the owner of the town council’s former managing agent firm FM Solutions and Services (FMSS), and FMSS.

In a statement on its party website, the three WP MPs acknowledged receipt of the PRPTC claim and said: “Our lawyers are reviewing the document. We will issue a statement after discussing the matter with them.”

The AHTC suit was filed by an independent panel, chaired by Senior Counsel Philip Jeyaretnam, which was appointed in February to recommend the recovery actions the AHTC needs to take over the large sums of improper payments that it had made from its funds.

The payments were flagged by the town council’s auditor KPMG in October last year.

In the suit, the AHTC claimed the town councillors “breached their duty of care and skill ... fiduciary and/or duty of care and skill in tort” in these and other contracts. The eight defendants were also asked to account for the S$33.7 million paid to AHTC’s managing agent FMSS and FM Solutions & Integrated Services (FMSI) as its service provider, and to make up for any improper payments.

The WP MPs have rejected the allegations, and had declared that they are contesting the lawsuit. Law firm Tan Rajah and Cheah has been engaged to defend them.

The WP won the Punggol East single-member ward in a by-election in 2013, and brought it under the wings of the AHTC to form the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC).

But AHPETC had to be re-constituted as AHTC after the WP lost the Punggol East seat in the 2015 General Election, with management of Punggol East returning to PRPTC.

The Government had, in 2014, directed the Auditor-General to audit the accounts of the AHPETC after independent auditors engaged by AHPETC issued a disclaimer of opinion — having flagged over a dozen areas as issues of concern — on the town council’s financial statements for financial years 2011/2012 and 2012/2013.

AHTC’s lawsuit against the WP MPs and its town councillors in July said it did not claim any losses attributable to PRPTC, but pleaded the full quantum for the purpose of the case. PRPTC said it launched its own legal proceedings in order to “discharge its duty to its residents to recover what is due”.