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MP: Meet accounts deadlines or WP residents will suffer
Last week in Parliament (12 Feb), National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan said his ministry would withhold about $7 million of S&CC grants for the financial year 2014 from Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) until “it cleans up its mess” (‘Khaw withholds $7M S&CC subsidies from AHPETC residents‘).
In particular, he gave deadlines to AHPETC to submit an unqualified set of FY2013 financial reports to his ministry by 30 June 2015 and FY2014 financial reports by 31 August 2015. These must be tabled to Parliament, he said.
At a community event on Sunday (15 Feb), MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC Hri Kumar Nair “echoed” the words of Minister Khaw.
He said that AHPETC must submit its accounts by the deadlines set or its residents “will suffer“.
Mr Hri Kumar said if the opposition-run town council failed to meet the deadlines, it would result in them not having enough funds to continue operations:
AHPETC doing their best to meet first deadline
Meanwhile, AHPETC Chairman Sylvia Lim has said they are trying their best to meet the first deadline of 30 June 2015.
She told reporters on Monday (16 Feb), “We will do our best to meet that deadline… we are looking to see how fast we can get this done.”
Several ministers said in Parliament last week that AHPETC’s managing agent (MA), FMSS, overcharged the town council by $1.6 million a year, over 4 years, in managing agent fees. The ministers of course all hail from the incumbent PAP.
They called on WP to recover the millions of dollars in public funds the opposition party allegedly overpaid FMSS, and to order a forensic audit of AHPETC’s accounts.
However, TR Emeritus was able to determine that the MA rates PAP used to calculate the “overpayment” by AHPETC to FMSS (as presented in Parliament) are the lower values from 2014 onwards:
The MA rates for at at least 1 GRC – Pasir Ris Punggol – were much higher in 2011, 2012 and 2013 (‘PAP managing agents mysteriously lower their rates‘).
Moreover, it is not known if some PAP-run town councils (PAP TCs) like Tanjong Pagar TC paid much higher MA rates – comparable to AHPETC – from 2011 to 2013.
That being the case, it cannot be argued that AHPETC has overpaid its MA, FMSS.
Until PAP TCs disclose all their actual MA rates from 2011 to 2013, it is hard to convince netizens that AHPETC residents have got a raw deal.
What do you think?
http://www.tremeritus.com/2015/02/19/mp-meet-accounts-deadlines-or-wp-residents-will-suffer/
Last week in Parliament (12 Feb), National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan said his ministry would withhold about $7 million of S&CC grants for the financial year 2014 from Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) until “it cleans up its mess” (‘Khaw withholds $7M S&CC subsidies from AHPETC residents‘).
In particular, he gave deadlines to AHPETC to submit an unqualified set of FY2013 financial reports to his ministry by 30 June 2015 and FY2014 financial reports by 31 August 2015. These must be tabled to Parliament, he said.
At a community event on Sunday (15 Feb), MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC Hri Kumar Nair “echoed” the words of Minister Khaw.
He said that AHPETC must submit its accounts by the deadlines set or its residents “will suffer“.
Mr Hri Kumar said if the opposition-run town council failed to meet the deadlines, it would result in them not having enough funds to continue operations:
We can have a situation where the Aljunied Town Council misses the deadline – the June deadline or the August deadline to produce the audited accounts for FY2013/2014. That means the MND will continue to withhold the S&CC grants to the town council.
That would not be a satisfactory solution or outcome because that means the town council is deprived of funds and ultimately the people who suffer will be the residents because the town council would not have sufficient funds to continue operations.
What may happen – or one possible solution to that, would be for the funds to be released to the town council but for MND to put in place mechanisms whereby they can monitor how those funds may be used to ensure that public funds would not be compromised.
AHPETC doing their best to meet first deadline
Meanwhile, AHPETC Chairman Sylvia Lim has said they are trying their best to meet the first deadline of 30 June 2015.
She told reporters on Monday (16 Feb), “We will do our best to meet that deadline… we are looking to see how fast we can get this done.”
Several ministers said in Parliament last week that AHPETC’s managing agent (MA), FMSS, overcharged the town council by $1.6 million a year, over 4 years, in managing agent fees. The ministers of course all hail from the incumbent PAP.
They called on WP to recover the millions of dollars in public funds the opposition party allegedly overpaid FMSS, and to order a forensic audit of AHPETC’s accounts.
However, TR Emeritus was able to determine that the MA rates PAP used to calculate the “overpayment” by AHPETC to FMSS (as presented in Parliament) are the lower values from 2014 onwards:

The MA rates for at at least 1 GRC – Pasir Ris Punggol – were much higher in 2011, 2012 and 2013 (‘PAP managing agents mysteriously lower their rates‘).
Moreover, it is not known if some PAP-run town councils (PAP TCs) like Tanjong Pagar TC paid much higher MA rates – comparable to AHPETC – from 2011 to 2013.
That being the case, it cannot be argued that AHPETC has overpaid its MA, FMSS.
Until PAP TCs disclose all their actual MA rates from 2011 to 2013, it is hard to convince netizens that AHPETC residents have got a raw deal.
What do you think?
http://www.tremeritus.com/2015/02/19/mp-meet-accounts-deadlines-or-wp-residents-will-suffer/
