Chitchat WP Oppies Found Guilty!!! Likely To Be Bankrupted Soon! John Tan To Celebrate Tonight!! Huat Ah!!!

[JohnTan]

SINGAPORE - Workers' Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh and his fellow Aljunied GRC MPs Sylvia Lim and Low Thia Khiang have been found liable for damages suffered by the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC), which is said to have made millions in improper payments under their watch.

In a much-anticipated judgment released on Friday (Oct 11), High Court Judge Kannan Ramesh said that Ms Lim and Mr Low had breached their fiduciary duty, while Mr Singh had breached his duty of skill and care in the hiring of the town council's managing agent FM Solutions & Services (FMSS).

This resulted in the town council paying at least $33.7 million to FMSS from July 2011 to July 2015.


During that period, Ms Lim was chairman of the town council, while Mr Low was secretary-general of the WP.

Mr Singh, meanwhile, was a member of the town council's tenders and contracts committee.

At this point, it is unlikely that the judgment will affect their position as MPs, as it arises from civil proceedings. The MPs can decide whether to appeal against the verdict.

The case will move on to a second round of hearings to assess and determine the quantum of damages suffered by the town council, and how much it can recover from the MPs.

AHTC had asked for "equitable compensation" for any sum wrongfully paid out in its statement of claim.

If the WP MPs cannot pay up, they will be made bankrupt and lose their parliamentary seats.

A file photo taken on Oct 4, 2018, showing the exterior of the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council office. The town council is said to have made millions in improper payments under their watch.

Last year, the three WP MPs, in their personal capacity, raised more than $1 million in three days for their legal fees in a crowdfunding effort.

The civil suit was initiated in 2017 under the direction of an independent panel set up by the town council to recover improper payments.

Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council (PRPTC) had also sued to recover its share of losses incurred when Punggol East constituency was managed by the WP-led town council from 2013 to 2015. The WP had won the seat in a 2013 by-election but lost it in the 2015 General Election.

The claims by both town councils centred on $33.7 million that AHTC paid to its former managing agent FMSS between 2011 and 2015.

Friday's verdict brings to a close the first tranche of the trial to determine liability.

Over 17 days last year, 14 witnesses were called and questioned by lawyers, resulting in robust exchanges and debates, as well as unexpected disclosures before an often-packed public gallery.

The case is the latest turn in an ongoing saga that goes back to 2011.

AHTC had been unable to submit an unqualified set of accounts since 2011, after the WP won Aljunied GRC in the 2011 General Election.

The state of affairs led to a special audit by the Auditor-General's Office (AGO), which found significant governance lapses at AHTC.

The AGO's findings were raised in Parliament, and the Court of Appeal directed AHTC to appoint a Big Four accounting firm to help it fix the lapses and ensure compliance with the law. AHTC appointed independent auditor KPMG in 2016 to look into its books.

KPMG found that the lapses at AHTC had put public funds running into millions of dollars at risk of improper use. AHTC appointed an independent panel to look into the improper payments and take action, including recovering the money.

The WP MPs and town councillors were represented by Tan Rajah & Cheah, with lawyer Chelva Retnam Rajah as lead counsel, while FMSS was represented by Netto & Magin.

The independent AHTC panel was represented by a team from Shook Lin and Bok, led by lawyer David Chan.

PRPTC was represented by Drew & Napier, led by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh who is now at Davinder Singh Chambers.

https://www.straitstimes.com/politi...thia-khiang-found-liable-for-damages-suffered

 

[nayr69sg]

For a country where people say that pregnant women should be fired for being pregnant, I am sure they will also say these WP jokes should be bankrupt!

Sinkies whack sinkies. Wonderful people.

 

[JohnTan]

For a country where people say that pregnant women should be fired for being pregnant, I am sure they will also say these WP jokes should be bankrupt!

Sinkies whack sinkies. Wonderful people.

The circle of life.

Low Thia Khiang's mentor, JBJ, was made bankrupt for telling lies. Now, he himself is going to be bankrupt. In life, one should be honest. Learn from these oppies and stay clean, samsters.

 

[bobby]

You expected a different judgement from a Singapore court?

 

[JohnTan]

You expected a different judgement from a Singapore court?

Singapore's courts have a reputation for integrity and fair play. That's why our judges are sought after by ASEAN countries and beyond to serve in their judiciary.

 

[JohnTan]

Full judgement from the judge. Total transparency and accountability from our courts, unlike the oppie town council.

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/ahtc-trial-verdict-grounds-decision

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Tat is good...if the quiet party looses aljunied..there will be a chance for ah chee, ah tean, ah bock to enter parleement even as ncmp and they will make a bigger difference than quiet party. If there are no oppies in parleement. ThAn singkies will go back to the bad old days of no opposition in parleement. Let singkies get the gahmen they vote for

 

[knowwhatyouwantinlife]

Let's see what happens if WP is gone from parliament:
1. Sinkies will still be sinkies 70% will still be 70%
2. Pap best and the only holy gospel in SG
3. ST has less stories to write about in 'politics'
4. More prominent party leaders has a higher chance to be NMP
5. As one Dr pointed out sgreans want pregnant women to get retrenched, regardless
6. Maybe that's why the silence of WP in public too much time spent double dipping into the cookie jar

 

[JohnTan]

Let's see what happens if WP is gone from parliament:
1. Sinkies will still be sinkies 70% will still be 70%
2. Pap best and the only holy gospel in SG
3. ST has less stories to write about in 'politics'
4. More prominent party leaders has a higher chance to be NMP
5. As one Dr pointed out sgreans want pregnant women to get retrenched, regardless
6. Maybe that's why the silence of WP in public too much time spent double dipping into the cookie jar
View attachment 66180

If WP is gone from Parliament, our PAP leaders can focus better on running Singapore. They wouldn't be distracted by oppie antics like defamation or mismanaging their town council. Perhaps oppies should learn some management skills by running a lemonade stand or selling tissue paper in public.

 

[red amoeba]

Don’t think ah bock will contest Aljunied. Back to PAP and maybe shift a vulnerable member to helm Aljunied to ensure safety.

 

[JohnTan]

Don’t think ah bock will contest Aljunied. Back to PAP and maybe shift a vulnerable member to helm Aljunied to ensure safety.

The oppies' incompetence and unprofessionalism in running their town council ensure that the GRC will remain safely in PAP's hands. Majulah PAP!

Fuck you oppies!

 

[steffychun]

It is War! All WP members will target John Tan's daughter!

 

[Hypocrite-The]

The oppies' incompetence and unprofessionalism in running their town council ensure that the GRC will remain safely in PAP's hands. Majulah PAP!

Fuck you oppies!

Have to agree with u. Despite the biased BS reporting by the main stream media.. Silvia and gang basically gave pap a golden bullet n shot themselves in the head. It's obvious tat WP was incompetent...n LTK should have known better bcos he ran hougang SMC for decades..how could he have fucked up big time on aljunied.? Anyway hope wp looses n tat way ah bock,ah tean n ah chee might get into parleement via ncmp scheme

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Let's see what happens if WP is gone from parliament:
1. Sinkies will still be sinkies 70% will still be 70%
2. Pap best and the only holy gospel in SG
3. ST has less stories to write about in 'politics'
4. More prominent party leaders has a higher chance to be NMP
5. As one Dr pointed out sgreans want pregnant women to get retrenched, regardless
6. Maybe that's why the silence of WP in public too much time spent double dipping into the cookie jar
View attachment 66180

If WP is gone from parleement, ah bock, ah tean n ah chee has a chance of getting in n give pap some real competition

 

[AhMeng]

Majullah PAP! Reject WP with an "X"!
PAP Bestest! Without PAP, your Sing dollar will be worthless and no value. Your HDB flat will rot and depreciate in value! Majullah PAP and Singapore!

 

[rotiprata]

Majullah WP.....Majullah AHJC...

 

[Hypocrite-The]

AHTC case: What you need to know about the High Court judgment
Share this content
Bookmark
SINGAPORE: Workers’ Party (WP) leaders have been found liable for the misuse of tens of millions in town council funds, the High Court ruled on Friday (Oct 11).
High Court judge Kannan Ramesh said that WP Members of Parliament Mr Low Thia Khiang and Ms Sylvia Lim were not only derelict in appointing a managing agent for Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) without calling for a tender, they had also painted a narrative that was "misleading and not honest" in order to do so.
"Their conduct was improper and the attempt to cloak the same with a veneer of truth and credibility collectively leads to the conclusion that they had not acted honestly and therefore breached their duty of unflinching loyalty to AHTC as fiduciaries," he said.
The judgment for the first stage of the landmark case, which Justice Ramesh likened to a “hydra” for its complexity, was given in a 329-page document.
This following is a summary of key points raised in the judgment:
Who’s involved and what were their roles?
(From left) The Workers' Party's Pritam Singh, Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim.
The three main defendants are WP Members of Parliament for Aljunied GRC: Ms Sylvia Lim, who is also chairperson of the party, Mr Low Thia Khiang and WP secretary-general Pritam Singh.
They were elected as town councillors of Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) following the 2011 General Elections.
The other defendants are:

• AHTC councillors Mr David Chua Zhi Hon and Mr Kenneth Foo Seck Guan.
• Mr Danny Loh, the town council's secretary and Ms How Weng Fan, who held positions as deputy secretary and general manager.
• FM Solution and Services (FMSS), AHTC’s managing agent, which was owned by Mr Loh and had Ms How as a director. As Mr Loh died in 2015, he is represented by his wife Ms How.

They were sued by AHTC and Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council (PRPTC) on the back of audit reports, which flagged "serious flaws" in AHTC’s governance.
What were defendants accused of?
The plaintiffs alleged that the MPS and town councillors had breached their fiduciary duties in the following ways:

• That they appointed FMSS as AHTC’s managing agent and awarded contracts for Essential Maintenance Services Unit (EMSU) services to the company without calling tenders.
• That they failed to ensure meaningful oversight of payments to FMSS and its service provider FM Solutions & Integrated Services (FMSI).
• That they improperly awarded contracts to companies for maintenance and other works in the estates they managed

What were they found in breach of?
The defendants are liable for most of the claims made against them, mainly for lapses in appointing FMSS as the AHTC managing agent without a tender.
There was also a lack of safeguards for payments to FMSS and FMSI, creating an “inherent risk of overpayment”, said Mr Ramesh.
They were faulted for the contracts awarded to some third-party contractors. The defendants’ liabilities are summarised in the two tables below:

Appointment of FMSS as managing agent
The judge found that there was “a clear plan for FMSS to replace the incumbent managing agent CPG” after the 2011 GE, regardless of CPG’s intention to stay on or withdraw from its contract.
While Ms Lim and Mr Low had argued that they were forced to hire FMSS because CPG wanted to terminate its contract with the town council, the judge said that correspondence between the parties involved during that period showed that this was not the case.
“The defendants, or at least some of them, wanted CPG out. This means that the waiver of tender and the appointment of FMSS was not a contingency at all, but a fait accompli,” he said in the judgment.
One of the reasons was that Mr Low had a distrust of CPG and entities he thought were linked to the People’s Action Party, he added.
READ: Defendants used residents' hard-earned money to improve political standing, claims Davinder Singh

Mr Ramesh called the decision to waive the tender for a new managing agent “inexcusable”, as CPG was bound by contract to serve until mid-2013 and the circumstances were not urgent as claimed by the WP MPs.
"None of the town councillors explored the possibility of asking CPG to stay on for a longer period so that a tender could be called, even though there was nothing stopping them from doing so," he noted.
Mr Low and Ms Lim had also made a “deliberate and calculated” move to keep CPG and the town council in the dark about their plan to appoint FMSS without a tender, the judge concluded.
"Political considerations"
The judge pointed out how Mr Low involved Mr Loh in the hiring of his own company by asking Mr Loh to help draft a report on the assessment of and the decision to appoint FMSS.
Ms Lim later circulated a revised version of the report and asked Ms How and Mr Loh to examine it to see if it would "pass the auditors' eyes".
"I find this to be quite extraordinary and casts serious doubt on the integrity of Ms Sylvia Lim," said the judge.
"They should have been the last persons involved in any step in the process by which FMSS was appointed. Their conflict of interest is crystal clear."
The way FMSS was appointed thus pointed to "extraneous considerations", including politics and a "misguided sense of loyalty" to Hougang town council staff members who had worked with Mr Low for 20 years, said the judge.
“I am not suggesting that Mr Low Thia Khiang and Ms Sylvia Lim were expected to have no regard to any political considerations in making their decisions, which would surely be unrealistic,” said Justice Ramesh.
“However, they were expected to not subordinate the interests of AHTC, not to mention their statutory and fiduciary duties, to their own political interests.”
He found Ms How also liable as she was “heavily involved” in the award process, but said that Mr Singh’s involvement in these early events was less clear.
READ: Managing agent 'enjoyed' 300% profit increase as town council's finances suffered, say lawyers
However, he, Mr Chua and Mr Foo should have asked about the circumstances of the waiver and thus have breached their duties of skill and care to AHTC.
Justice Ramesh made a similar ruling on a contract to have FMSS provide EMSU services to AHTC.
He added that the WP MPs painted a "misleading picture" to the public with a press release issued on Aug 5, 2011 which said that there was insufficient time to call a tender.
"That was not the true picture and it camouflaged the real reasons why tender was waived. It is particularly unsatisfactory that this misleading narrative was conveyed to the public, and specifically the very constituents that the elected MPs were elected to serve," he said.
“Improper payments” to FMSS and FMSI
People who were shareholders of FMSS were also tasked to approve payments from the town council to the company, the judge found, giving rise to conflicts of interest and “systemic” control failures.
“I find that the approval process for payments to FMSS was insufficiently rigorous given the involvement of the conflicted persons,” said Mr Ramesh.
Standing instructions for the payments to be co-signed by the AHTC chairman or vice-chairman was not a sufficient safeguard as there was no system for independent parties to verify each cheque, he added.
The judge also found breaches in the award of certain contracts to LST Architects, Red-Power Electrical Engineering, Titan Facilities Management and J Keart Alliances, a provider of fire-safety equipment and services.
What were they not found liable for?
One of the contracts the plaintiffs took issue with, awarded to Rentokil for pest control, was found to be justified.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Workers' Party MPs found liable in multimillion-dollar AHTC case; judgment raises 'serious doubt' about their integrity
(From left) Workers' Party MPs Pritam Singh, Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim leaving the Supreme Court on Oct 8, 2018. (Photo: Koh Mui Fong/TODAY)
11 Oct 2019 12:28PM
(Updated: 11 Oct 2019 07:25PM)
Share this content
Bookmark
SINGAPORE: A judge on Friday (Oct 11) found three Workers’ Party (WP) Members of Parliament liable in a landmark case investigating misuse of town council funds, saying that there is "serious doubt" about the integrity of Ms Sylvia Lim and Mr Low Thia Khiang.
The two MPs, along with WP chief Pritam Singh, could now be liable for part of the S$33.7 million in claims, which will be determined in a "future second stage of the trial", said High Court judge Kannan Ramesh.
In his written judgment, Justice Ramesh said Ms Lim and Mr Low had breached their fiduciary duties in appointing FM Solutions and Services (FMSS) as managing agent of Aljunied Hougang Town Council (AHTC).
READ: What you need to know about the High Court judgment on the AHTC case
Both had "failed to act in AHTC’s best interests and had acted for extraneous purposes”, he said.
As for Mr Singh, while "it cannot be said that he has breached his fiduciary duties to AHTC”, he had breached his “duties of skill and care”, the judge said.
The appointment of FMSS as managing agent led to AHTC making more than S$33 million in improper payments to FMSS, which was helmed by conflicted parties with roles in both the town council and FMSS.
The conflicted parties are Ms How Weng Fan, who had worked with Mr Low for more than two decades, and her late husband Danny Loh.
The judge found that all three MPs were “clearly involved from the beginning to effect the appointment” of FMSS without a tender, and they had “collateral motives in doing so”.
He also rapped Ms Lim and Mr Low for their "lack of transparency and candour", which he said was apparent in an email sent by Ms Lim to FMSS' Ms How and Mr Loh, asking them to examine a draft report on the managing agent appointment if it would "pass the auditors' eyes".
"I find this to be quite extraordinary and casts serious doubt on the integrity of Ms Sylvia Lim. It seems to me to be wholly unsatisfactory and inappropriate for Ms Sylvia Lim to ask Ms How Weng Fan and Mr Danny Loh to comment on a report concerning the appointment of FMSS without tender being called," the judge said.
Mr Low was "equally complicit", since it was his suggestion that Mr Loh should prepare the first draft of the report under the instruction of Ms Lim, Justice Ramesh said, adding that his observations on Ms Lim's conduct "would also apply" to Mr Low.
"There was a concerted attempt to cloak the appointment of FMSS with a veneer of propriety. It was an attempt to mislead, and a clinical demonstration of the disregard Ms Sylvia Lim and Mr Low Thia Khiang had for the requirements in the TCFR (Town Councils Financial Rules)," he said.
“Their conduct was improper and the attempt to cloak the same with a veneer of truth and credibility collectively leads to the conclusion that they had not acted honestly and therefore breached their duty of unflinching loyalty to AHTC as fiduciaries,” said Justice Ramesh.
THE CASE
The civil suit had been brought against the defendants by AHTC and Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council (PRPTC), the former asking for claims of S$33.7 million from the defendants, with costs, and were based on audit reports by KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The auditors had pointed to poor controls in the town council, flawed governance and millions of allegedly improper payments made by the town council to FMSS.
The verdict comes half a year after both sides made their final oral submissions, with PRPTC lawyer Davinder Singh arguing that the defendants had used residents’ hard-earned money to improve their political standing.
AHTC lead lawyer David Chan said WP stalwarts Ms Lim and Mr Low had three motives: To protect the former employees of Hougang Town Council and bring them over with them to AHTC when WP won Aljunied in the elections, to reward Ms How and Mr Loh as long-time WP supporters, and to position FMSS as an alternative service provider for opposition-run town councils.
At the heart of the MPs’ defence is their claim that they acted in good faith and in the best interests of their residents, as they had to work swiftly against deadlines to find a managing agent and ensure continuity of services to residents.
Senior Counsel Chelva Retnam Rajah, who represents the three WP MPs and town councillors, had said the accountants who wrote the audit reports were second-guessing the town councillors’ decisions, despite Parliament’s intention for town councils to exercise latitude over their own decisions.
If the defendants are not able to pay damages, AHTC could commence bankruptcy proceedings against them, and the WP MPs may lose their parliamentary seats as undischarged bankrupts cannot be MPs nor contest in parliamentary elections, under the Singapore Constitution.
The WP MPs involved in the suit had successfully raised a million dollars in a few days last October after turning to the public for help in legal fees.
Mr Low, Ms Lim and Mr Singh said in a statement on their blog, In Good Faith, that they are reviewing Friday's judgement.
"We are in the midst of reviewing the judgment and will take advice from our lawyers. We will share more details on our next step(s) in due course," they said.
Source: CNA/zl(cy)

 

[A Singaporean]

Election in near.

 

[glockman]

My sincere condolences to WP. It was good while it lasted. Or maybe not.