By Jeanette Tan |
Yahoo! Newsroom – 21 hours ago
[UPDATE: 17 May, 8:50am: including Teo's response after
WP's reaction]
Why won't Workers' Party chairman Sylvia Lim answer
questions?
That was the reaction of Teo Ho Pin, coordinating chairman of the
People's Action Party's Town Councils, Thursday evening after Lim
issued a statement in the afternoon in response to questions raised
by Teo.
"I asked serious questions about the financial probity of the
Aljunied-Hougang Town Council, which Ms Sylvia Lim chairs," said
Teo in a statement to media. "Ms Lim has not answered a single
question I asked."
"Why is Ms Lim reluctant to answer questions? What is she afraid
of?" he asked.
Worker's Party Chairman Sylvia Lim has challenged Dr Teo Ho Pin to
make a report to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB)
if he believes that the WP had mismanaged the Town Council.
In a press release in terse response to PAP Town Council chairman
Dr Teo's reference on Thursday to "troubling facts" in the
"questionably close relationship" that the WP has with FM Solutions
and Services (FMSS), its managing agent for
Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC).
"If the Minister, Dr Teo or the Ministry believe there was any
wrongdoing in WP's management of the Town Council, we invite them
to make a report to the CPIB or other relevant agencies to
investigate the matter, rather than to make these suggestions and
insinuations," read the statement.
"We assure these agencies of our full cooperation."
Lim also said that it was "most regrettable" and "disappointing"
that Dr Teo and Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan had
chosen to "distract the public" by "casting aspersions on WP's
management of the Town Council", the allegations made by Dr Teo had
already been addressed in Parliament or via media statements issued
by AHPETC.
Lim said that Dr Teo's question on why WP had chosen to appoint a
Managing Agent to run its Town Council "should be clear" to him, as
almost all PAP Town Councils also appoint Managing Agents.
She also accused Dr Teo of misrepresenting her response in
Parliament during a debate with Khaw over Managing Agent
rates.
"He said that I was “not sure of the unit rates paid by AHTC to
FMSS”. I am surprised, as this is clearly different from what was
correctly recorded in the draft Hansard which all MPs had received
by Tuesday 14 May. I said I needed to double-check the prices the
Minister quoted on property units because I thought there might be
some errors in the prices that he mentioned, and that we needed to
ensure that the comparisons were made on the same basis," clarified
Lim.
The press release even included a table charting the distinctions
between the controversial AIM transaction and WP's appointment of
FMSS, pictured below.
WP released a press statement on Thursday with a table
explaining its position
WP's statement comes as the opposition party's latest salvo in the
war of words taking place in Parliament over the AIM saga.
PAP(People's Action Party) Town Council coordinating chairman Teo
Ho Pin had earlier attacked the Workers' Party's (WP's)
relationship with its town council managing agent.
In a 13-paragraph statement he posted on his Facebook page, Ho
repeated details raised by National Development Minister Khaw
Boon Wan in closing remarks on Monday in Parliament on “troubling
facts” and the questionably close relationship that the WP has with
its managing agent for Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council
(AHPETC), FM Solutions and Services (FMSS).
Among other things, Ho said AHPETC chairman Sylvia Lim, who is also
WP chairman, needs to explain why her town council "gave more than
$26 million of public funds in contracts to close associates", and
why it paid "significantly higher than normal" management fees than
Aljunied Town Council's previous managing agent.
Ho also accused Lim of "trying to obfuscate the public with wrong
calculations on how much FMSS charged AHTC", in reference to an
exchange between the MND and the town council, where the two
disputed the rates that were paid by AHPETC to FMSS.
Delving further into the exchange of words on rates paid, Ho said
even at Lim's raised managing agent rate of $7.58 per unit, after
including commercial property, as opposed to her initial figure of
$7.01, which only factored in residential units, the MND said the
contract value over a three-year period would amount to $15.8
million, short of the $16.8 million Lim declared to the Housing
Development Board in 2012.
"Where is the missing $1 million?" he asked, also probing further
into the status of FMSS's owners, husband-and-wife team How Weng
Fan and Danny Loh, with the town council.
"Do they draw salaries as employees of the Town Council (being
General Manager and Deputy Secretary respectively)?" he asked. "As
Mr Loh and Ms How do business with the TC through FMSS which they
own and profit — do they get paid twice?"
Ho further mentioned
that the town council could have employed How directly to manage
the town in the way Hougang Town Council had done, instead of
forming a separate company.
"The WP MPs in AHTC owe it to the residents of Aljunied and
Hougang, as well as Singaporeans in general, to give full answers
to (the questions he raised)," concluded Ho.
Ho's statement follows a fiery debate on Monday evening in
Parliament between Khaw and WP chairman Sylvia Lim over a
controversial sale of the PAP Town Councils' computer software
system to a party-owned company called Action Information
Management (AIM).
The exchange eventually saw Khaw turning the tables on WP, drawing
scrutiny on the AHPETC's transactions with FMSS from the time the
party took over Aljunied GRC in May 2011.
