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Tag: managing agent

  • AHPETC: No Managing Agent Has Submitted Bid

    AHPETC: No Managing Agent Has Submitted Bid

    The Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) will not have a Managing Agent from July, as no one has come forward to submit a bid, said chairman Sylvia Lim in an open letter to residents published in the June edition of the Good Neighbours newsletter.

    “Come July 2015, we will be embarking on direct management of the TC, as no MA (Managing Agent) has submitted a bid to work for AHPETC. We will do our best to keep costs down and protect AHPETC’s long-term financial interests,” she wrote.

    She added that the Workers’ Party-run town council would continue to serve residents to the best of its ability despite the “challenging political climate”.

    Ms Lim said the three-page letter aimed to clarify any misconceptions that may have arisen, as well as to update residents on matters concerning the management of the town council.

    Earlier this year, a report by the Auditor-General’s Office pointed out serious lapses in the town council’s books. This sparked a two-day debate in Parliament.

    Among the lapses identified was a failure to manage conflict of interest when it came to transactions involving its Managing Agent FM Solutions & Services (FMSS). Its owners were also senior party officers.

    In the letter to residents, Ms Lim said AHPETC had not given contracts to friends, and that public tenders had been called in 2012.

    “AHPETC does not and cannot reserve contracts for friends in a public tender,” she said, adding that a tender was not called for MA services only in the one-year period from July 2011 to July 2012.

    The then newly-elected MPs had decided to award FMSS a one-year provisional contract – to ensure a smooth takeover of town management and avoid any disruptions in services to residents.

    The town council is also said to have overpaid FMSS by an estimated S$1.6 million a year, over a four-year period.

    But Ms Lim said what AHPETC pays its Managing Agent cannot be compared to the “weighted average” of rates that all other town councils pay.

    She pointed to tables detailing the rates for residential and commercial units between 2011 and 2014, saying that there is “a lot of variation” in rates among the town councils – which reflect the different geography and requirements of each town. This, in turn, affects how they are managed.

    Ms Lim added that this, and later contracts involving FMSS, were fairly priced and based on “strict reasoning” using available market information.

    In wrapping up her letter, Ms Lim told residents that since the AGO report, AHPETC has made some improvements, and hired external accountants to help clean up its accounts as well as to further strengthen processes and controls.

    “The work is making progress and certain financial issues will take time to resolve. AHPETC is also working towards filing its audited accounts by the deadlines set by the Ministry of National Development (MND),” she said.

    MND is currently appealing a High Court decision not to appoint independent accountants to safeguard Government grants to the town council. The court did also point out that grave and serious questions had been raised about the state of the town council’s accounts.

    The ministry said there is an urgent need for independent accountants to be appointed with powers of inquiry and recovery, given the “serious questions” raised about payments AHPETC had made to related parties — a reference to the town council’s managing agent firms.

    The case is likely to be heard on Aug 3.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

  • AHPETC Paid Highest Rates To Managing Agent In Three Out Of Past Four Years

    AHPETC Paid Highest Rates To Managing Agent In Three Out Of Past Four Years

    Among all the town councils, the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) paid the highest rates to its managing agent (MA) — for both residential and commercial units — for three out of the past four years, figures from the Ministry of National Development (MND) showed.

    Ms Sylvia Lim, Workers’ Party (WP) chairman and Aljunied GRC Member of Parliament, had filed questions for written answers, asking the MND for the MA rates of each of the town council for residential and commercial units in 2011, 2012 and 2013. She also asked for the names of the firms that were appointed as the MA of each town council for those years.

    In response, the MND released figures for the rates between 2011 and last year. For residential units, AHPETC paid the highest rates to its MA, FM Solutions and Services (FMSS), for the four years, except in 2013 when its rates was behind what Potong Pasir Town Council paid its MA, EM Services.

    For commercial units, AHPETC’s MA rates were the highest in 2011, 2013 and last year, but its rates were topped by those paid by the East Coast and Pasir Ris-Punggol town councils in 2012.

    The ministry also highlighted that all MA contracts charge a “clean MA rate” for each property type, with the exception of the FMSS’ 2011 MA contract with the town council. Unlike other MA contracts, FMSS’ MA fee comprises three separate cost components: The MA rate, a fee to cover the costs of existing staff of the former Hougang Town Council, and a fee to cover the costs of new staff.

    During last month’s parliamentary debate on the Auditor-General’s audit report on AHPETC, which found several accounting and corporate governance lapses, Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam cited the MA rates of each town council last year to show that the fees paid by AHPETC to FMSS were significantly higher. Among other things, Mr Shanmugan charged that the town council made inflated payments to FMSS — whose directors were also key office holders in the town council — without transparency and accountability.

    Ms Lim questioned the figures cited by Mr Shanmugam, asserting that MA rates for commercial and residential units are usually different. In response, Mr Shanmugam said the figures were accurate.

    The ministry has since clarified that the MAs of all town councils, with the exception of FMSS, have done away with the practice of charging differentiated rates for residential and commercial units. The ministry also said Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council had called for a fresh tender last year, which adjusted its rates for commercial units from S$11.50 to S$5.50.

    Ms Lim also tabled a question asking the ministry what were the rates charged by the MA for the former Aljunied Town Council — which was then run by People’s Action Party — for 2010, 2011 and 2012. The ministry noted that the contract which the former Aljunied Town Council signed with its MA, CPG Facilities Management, is in fact in AHPETC’s possession. CPG’s rate per commercial unit was S$12.80 in those three years. Its rate per residential unit during the period was between S$6.03 and S$6.73.

    Taking into account various components in FMSS’ MA fee, the town council’s payments to FMSS in 2011 were effectively 20 per cent higher than the amount paid to CPG Facilities Management in 2010. By last year, AHPETC was paying about S$1.6 million more to its MA than other town councils, the ministry reiterated.

    Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC MP Hri Kumar Nair questioned the additional fees that the town council paid to FMSS in 2011. “Since the work of running the enlarged Aljunied-Hougang Town Council fell on former Hougang staff — some of whom became owners of FMSS — as well as the new staff whose salaries were provided for, why were additional MA fees payable for that year to FMSS?”

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com