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WP’s pattern of deflection, denial betrays public trust, says Heng

SINGAPORE — The Workers’ Party (WP) has betrayed the people’s trust by failing to act in the best interest of residents, by not living up to its promise and for displaying a “consistent pattern” of denial, deflection and protection of the managing agent owned by its supporters.

Education Minister Heng Swee Keat. TODAY file photo

Education Minister Heng Swee Keat. TODAY file photo

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SINGAPORE — The Workers’ Party (WP) has betrayed the people’s trust by failing to act in the best interest of residents, by not living up to its promise and for displaying a “consistent pattern” of denial, deflection and protection of the managing agent owned by its supporters.

Education Minister Heng Swee Keat today (Feb 13) levelled these charges at the opposition party as he weighed in on the debate about the Auditor-General’s Office’s (AGO) report on the WP-run Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) — the third Cabinet minister to do so.

Mr Heng pointed out that compared to anywhere else in the country, the residents in the estates managed by AHPETC were charged the highest fees by its managing agent, FM Solutions and Services (FMSS).

He added that S$12 million were also missing from the town council’s sinking funds, which are meant for long-term maintenance work, before a partial sum was belatedly recovered. Mr Heng said residents’ well-being would be compromised further when there are insufficient funds for infrastructure repair work.

He said the WP corrected the shortfall only because it was caught.

“If not for the Auditor-General, the town councillors would have kept the residents of Aljunied, Hougang and Punggol East in the dark. Nothing is transparent,” he added.

The WP and AHPETC chairman Sylvia Lim, however, rejected the accusation. She said parts of the sum had been put back into the sinking funds before the audit began, and the calculations had taken them “quite some time”.

Mr Heng charged that the shortfall happened because the town council was “running into cash-flow problems from their profligate management, and they put off paying into the sinking fund so that they would have money to pay the MA (managing agent)”. “That is compromising the long-term interests of residents to enrich their friends,” he said.

On how the WP kept defending FMSS, Mr Heng said: “They have a consistent pattern of denial, deflection and protection of their managing agent, which suggests a serious rot is happening.”

He also cited several examples where WP MPs went back on their words. For instance, they had said they would address Parliament on the audit report, but yesterday, Aljunied GRC MP and AHPETC vice-chairman Pritam Singh said he would only answer residents on the matter, Mr Heng noted.

He also revealed that WP Non-Constituency MP Yee Jenn Jong and a group of party supporters were asked by a resident last evening about the report.

“But he didn’t answer and walked away quickly. So is this the answer Mr Singh (and) the WP promised to residents? A WP CEC (central executive council) member and his activists meet residents, and they evade the question?” Mr Heng said.

He added that the WP MPs have shown a “pattern of behaviour of saying whatever suits them for the moment”. But what was more disturbing was how the WP had made empty promises to win votes, Mr Heng said.

For instance, at the rallies during the 2013 Punggol East by-election, WP members including Mr Gerald Giam and Ms Lee Li Lian, who was eventually elected as Punggol East MP, spoke of their confidence in managing a town council. Ms Lim had also said in May 2013 in Parliament that WP MPs are “committed to being politically accountable to voters for town management under the current regime”.

Referring to WP chief Low Thia Khiang’s comments in Parliament on Thursday, in which he said the Opposition should not be expected to run town councils, Mr Heng said: “Or were Mr Gerald Giam, Ms Lee Li Lian and Ms Sylvia Lim all misleading residents when they made these speeches, that WP had no intention whatsoever of fulfilling your election promises?”

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