Singapore — Pasir-Ris Punggol Town Council (PRPTC) has sought an “urgent appointment” with the Court of Appeal to press Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) and the latter’s accountant KPMG to provide documents relating to Punggol East.

This comes more than six weeks after the Court of Appeal had directed AHTC to hand over those documents to PRPTC and its accountant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

But AHTC has not provided all the documents termed Category 1 documents “despite numerous requests”, PRPTC stated yesterday afternoon in a media release.

More than four hours later, however, AHTC issued a media statement to say it had submitted “all the Category 1 documents ... in its possession to PRPTC” and that many documents were submitted during the operational handover last November.

Punggol East’s audited accounts from April 1 to Nov 30, 2015, were handed over recently, on Sept 28, disclosed AHTC chairman Pritam Singh.

However, the Workers’ Party-run town council has not yet submitted any Category 2 documents, which relate to Punggol East but may also relate to other constituencies in the former Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council.

This had been a point of contention between the two sides during the court hearing on Aug 18.

Regarding this, the conditions under which access should be given “would have to be worked out” where AHTC has “specific concerns” about the confidentiality of “specific parts of any identified Category 2 documents”, noted PRPTC yesterday.

But AHTC has not identified any such specific concerns, PRPTC said.

In reply, Mr Singh said: “AHTC is in the final stages of preparing for the handover of the Category 2 documents ... once AHTC’s lawyers and PRPTC’s lawyers confirm the conditions determining their release to PRPTC.”

Both sets of lawyers now look set to seek guidance from the court.

The People’s Action Party had regained Punggol East from the Workers’ Party at the General Election, and placed it under the PRPTC again.

Referring to the constituency’s financial health, Mr Singh said yesterday: “While PRPTC handed over to AHTC S$22.5 million in sinking funds after the Punggol East by-election, AHTC is handing over to PRPTC S$26.8 million in sinking funds and another S$755,000 in accumulated surplus, totaling S$27.5 million.”