SINGAPORE — Questioning the Workers’ Party’s (WP) dealings with its estate managing agent FM Solutions and Services (FMSS), Coordinating Chairman of the PAP Town Councils Teo Ho Pin said yesterday that “basic” questions, such as whether the owners of FMSS — who are also long-time WP supporters and hold positions in its town council — are “paid twice”, raise “serious issues of financial probity and transparency”.

FMSS is the managing agent of the WP’s town council. Writing on Facebook yesterday, Dr Teo said the public deserves more answers after National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan “revealed troubling facts about FMSS” in Parliament on Monday, during the debate on the findings of a Ministry of National Development (MND) review of the PAP Town Councils’ sale of a management software to PAP-owned Action Information Management.

Since Monday, the MND and WP Chairman Sylvia Lim have locked horns over how much the WP’s town council is paying its managing agent. Among other things, the MND had cited the example of Tampines Town Council which runs an estate with a similar number of property units and pays a significantly lower rate.

Said Dr Teo: “(Mr Khaw) then asked Sylvia Lim directly how she would ‘characterise the FMSS transactions and if public interest has been protected’. Ms Lim has not answered these queries. The public deserves to know because the award of contracts worth S$26 million by the WP-run Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) to long-time supporters and close business associates of WP ... raises serious questions about public interest and transparency.”

FMSS is owned by the husband-and-wife team of Mr Danny Loh and Ms How Weng Fan, who were also the assentor and proposer respectively for the WP candidates for Ang Mo Kio GRC in the 2006 General Election. Dr Teo noted that Ms How and Mr Loh are also the Secretary and Deputy Secretary/General Manager, respectively, of the WP’s town council, which has since expanded to include Punggol East constituency.

Dr Teo said: “Do they draw salaries as employees of the town council? As Mr Loh and Ms How do business with the (Aljuned-Hougang Town Council) through (FMSS) which they own and profit — do they get paid twice?”

Referring to how the managing agent rates provided by Ms Lim differed from those provided by the MND, Dr Teo said: “Instead of trying to obfuscate the public with wrong calculations on how much FMSS charged AHTC, Ms Lim needs to explain clearly why a WP-run town council gave more than S$26 million of public funds in contracts to close associates.

“And why it paid management fees significantly higher than normal, and 20 per cent higher than its previous managing agent.”

In particular, Dr Teo said there were “three key questions” of public interest: Did AHTC secure the best possible deal by awarding a managing agent contract worth over S$5 million to a company “formed by close WP supporters just days after the 2011 GE, and without a tender”? Did AHTC exercise due diligence when it awarded “not one but two contracts worth over S$21 million” to the same company a year later in 2012? Has AHTC protected the interests of Aljunied and Hougang residents?

Dr Teo said Ms Lim’s “first response” in Parliament was that she was “not sure about the unit rates that AHTC paid to FMSS”. “She had awarded contracts at significantly higher prices to close and trusted party supporters, and she did not know the facts?” Dr Teo said.

He added: “Ms Lim then said that the high price could be due to inflation. Really? Can inflation explain the huge difference in rates with Tampines Town Council?”