Dr Teo Ho Pin rebuts Sylvia Lim over AIM issue
January 23rd, 2013 | Author: Editorial
Dr Teo Ho Pin
At yesterday’s evening (22 Jan) WP rally, Ms Sylvia Lim spoke about
the AIM issue. It then immediately triggered a
response from Coordinating Chairman of PAP Town
Councils, Dr Teo Ho Pin, later in the night.
Dr Teo posted an immediate response on PAP’s
Facebook rebutting Ms Lim.
Dr Teo’s immediate action even prompted a HWZ
netizen to say, “First time see my MP so hardworking.”
On PAP’s Facebook, Dr Teo said, “I have already
explained the circumstances behind the transaction.”
“To reiterate, these are the facts…”
He listed 3 points:
a) AIM was awarded the contract after an open
tender by PAP Town Councils, to centralise software to
maintain the current IT system and help develop a new system
b) The transaction brought benefits and savings to the Town
Councils. AIM did not make any financial gains from
the transaction.
c) It was the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) which
terminated the contract, and not AIM. Ms Lim herself
has admitted that the AHTC’s arrears are high, and
that this has nothing to do with AIM or the changeover
of the IT system, and that the AHTC could do better.
This is the key issue – the performance of the Town Councils, and
how well they are managed by the WP.
Dr Teo did not elaborate on the point of having an “unfair”
clause inside the contract. Essentially, there is a clause 9.3 in
the contract stating that the contract would be terminated if there
are “material changes to the membership of the town council” (i.e,
change of control of town council).
The inclusion of this “unfair” clause inside the contract is
akin to a person holding a gun at your head, waiting to “shoot” you
anytime. This prompted AHTC to decide to develop its
own systems. AHTC later informed AIM on
10 Jun 2011 that it would be developing its own systems:
From Mr Jeffrey Chua, secretary (interim), to AIM,
cc. Ms How Weng Fan, general manager:
“We would like to inform you that Aljunied-Hougang Town Council
is in the process of developing a Town Council Management System to
support its operations effectively.
We would like to thank AIM for the assistance
rendered to us in preparing the migration of database to the new
system.
The new system is targeted to go live on 1 August 2011. While
the new system goes live, we are planning to have the
AIMS-TCMS (Financial Module) running concurrently till
31 August 2011, so as to ascertain the reliability of the new
system.
As such, we would like to put up a request to continue to use
the AIMS-TCMS till 31 August 2011, for your favourable
consideration please.”
However, AHTC’s letter prompted AIM to
send an official termination notice to AHTC on 22 Jun
2011 [Link]:
“We hereby give notice in accordance with Clause 9.3 of the
Conditions of the above Contract that, owing to material changes to
the membership of the Town Council, we will cease to allow Aljunied
Town Council the use of the intellectual property and system
functions relating to the developed application software currently
used by the Town Council after a period of at least one month from
the date of this notice.
The provision of the developed application software will
therefore be terminated with effect from 1 August 2011.“
AIM’s official termination letter citing Clause 9.3
as the reason for terminating the contract confirms
AHTC’s worst fear.
.
