WP Mr Low
rebuttal to Ah Huay on the messy accounts
accusations
3 May 2011 –
Rally Speech by Low Thia Khiang
Punggol East
SMC (Open Field bounded by Sengkang East Avenue and Sengkang East
Drive)
Dear Voters of Punggol East, Seng Kang West, friends and fellow
Singaporeans, good evening.
We have entered a critical phase in this election. PAP has shown
its hands. They have embarked on a personal attack against me to
try to discredit me. The Prime Minister has personally gone down to
Aljunied GRC to campaign for the PAP team led by 2 ministers and a
future speaker of Parliament, three veteran PAP heavy weight
candidates. And MM Lee has also come out to make fun of our team as
compared to the PAP’s.
I believe they will also make use of the media to mock me. Please
be careful of what you read in news paper and what you see on TV.
Please come and attend our rallies in the next 2 nights and help us
to spread the message, and keep checking our web site wp.sg
First, I want to respond to Mrs Lim Hwee Hua’s accusation about
Hougang Town Council’s Account. She said: “Is it messy or are they
holding back till after the elections so that whoever wins Hougang
will then inherit the account?”
Do you believe that Low Thia Khiang is dishonest? Do you believe
that if the account of Hougang Town Council is messy, I can survive
for 20 years?
The account of Hougang Town Council, like any Town Council account
from the PAP, has to be audited by a public accountant who must be
approved by the Ministry for National Development. After the
auditor completed the audit, it has to be submitted to the Ministry
for National Development and Auditor General for approval. After
which, like all statutory boards, it has to be presented to
Parliament and each MP can have a copy of it.
If the account is messy, how come MND and Auditor General approved
it? Why is Mrs Lim, who is a minister and an MP, making this kind
of comment now? She has received a copy of the report on Hougang
Town Council and had not made any observations earlier. Why shoot
such irresponsible comments on me now? What is she trying to
do?
May I remind her as well that during the Lehman crisis, Hougang
Town Council is one of those who did not lose any money! We have
always handled our funds prudently.
Next, she brings in the issue of the privatization of the HUDC
estate at Hougang Ave 7. She says that Hougang Town Council has not
given the pro-tem committee formed for the purpose of privatization
on the portion of the sinking fund balance, to be transferred to
them after the privatization. This is again totally
misleading.
The HUDC estate is part of the estate managed by the Town Council.
The expenditure of the estate such as repainting works, reroofing
works, building maintenance and other expenses are all taken in one
single account under the account of Hougang Town Council which
includes the HDB flats. This was what I took over from the PAP when
I was elected in 1991.
Now that these blocks are to be privatized and they will manage
themselves, the accounts have to be segregated, including the
expense attributed to the blocks. The balance will then be
transferred to their account as required on the date decided by the
HDB.
This is the first time Hougang Town Council has needed to do this,
we want to be sure that the account separation is done properly and
we do not have experience in this area, so what did we do? Hougang
Town Council wrote to HDB on 23 August 2010 after the HDB sent its
briefing note to HGTC on the privatization process on 23 August
2010. We asked for advice and guidance on the method and principles
we should use to separate the account as well as format for the
accounts to avoid future dispute on how we have arrived at the
final amount to be transferred to them.
The HDB replied to the above query on 24 Nov 2010 and said that
HougangTC will have to decide on the basis of splitting the
account. Hougang TC then started preparation for the process by
discussing with the auditor the job scope and modification of the
computer system to capture the expenditure and receivables
separately.
The auditor was then appointed on 17 March 2011 and the certified
apportioned sinking fund based on audited account as at 31 March
2010 was completed on 11 April 2011. HGTC is now in the process of
capturing the expenditure apportioned to the HUDC estate between 31
March 2010 and 31 March 2011. Once the audited account for the HUDC
estate is completed and presented to Parliament, HGTC will give a
copy to the pro-term committee.
The HDB privatization briefing note to Hougang TC stated that the
role of the TC is to hand over the operating and sinking fund to
the Management Committee upon legal privatization. According to HDB
who informed HGTC on 6 April, they have obtained the required
consent for privatization but the expected duration to legally
privatize the estate is 2 and half years!
I have called for a report on this issue, Hougang Town Council has
given me the correspondence between the Town council and the HDB
and between the pro-term committee chairman. The Pro-term committee
chairman was informed of the steps HGTC has taken.
Therefore, we have done everything correctly. Why does Mrs Lim Hwee
Hua decide to take up the case and suggest that the account of
Hougang Town Council is messy and I, as chairman of Hougang Town
Council, have done something wrong. I leave it to you to guess her
intentions. Don’t you think that if I had done this, I am quite
sure that I will be sued.
It is tiring during election time to deal with this kind of issue,
instead of using my precious time to tell you more about Workers
Party message and policies, I have to end up wasting time answering
such nonsense accusations.
I will tell the PAP: if they suspect that I have done anything
wrong with the account, do report me to the CPIB. Do not hookwink
the voters at this critical time when polling day is near.
This is the PAP’s usual tactic: Do you still remember at the last
election, the case of CCTV footage from the Election
department?
All this is calculated to distract the voters and the Workers’
Party from delivering its message.
Election is a serious matter. I will be focused in the next 2 days
to urge the voters to Vote Workers’ Party, towards a First World
Parliament.
