A significant amount of vegetation that once grew on the hill beside Bukit Batok MRT station has been cleared, about three months after it made headlines for being infested with hundred of rats.
However, the barren land is not the result of an operation to weed out rats, said pest controllers.
“I believe (authorities) are doing their so-called routine maintenance, but this time round they’re doing a bit more. Actually, it comes after our exercise. They didn’t want to do this earlier so as not to jeopardise the whole rodent removal exercise,” said Mr Bernard Chan, general manager at Star Pest Control.
The hill had been declared “rat-free” in early January.
When contacted, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) said it was carrying out clearance to “better maintain the land”. HDB said that the “bare” portion of the land is temporary as re-turfing is being carried out.
Star Pest Control said it has not discovered any new signs of rats in the area. It said the rodents could return if people do not dispose of food properly, or feed strays, providing a supply of food for the rats.
The National Solidarity Party (NSP) has called on the government not to penalise residents Aljunied residents, tighten the framework of the Town Council Act and to depoliticise town councils so that it does not hinder the ability of MPs to serve as the people’s representatives.
The remarks were made in a statement issued by NSP’s new secretary-general Mr Tan Lam Siong, in the wake of the parliamentary debate on the financial audit by the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) on Aljunied Hougang Punggol East Town Council’s (AHPETC) accounts.
NSP called on the government not to withhold the service and conservancy charges (S&CC) grant to AHPETC in the light of the adverse findings by AGO, but instead to continue disbursing the grants to let AHPETC pay for essential services.
“As it is, the collection of S&CC charges from residential and commercial units is insufficient to cover all town council expenses and hence a government grant is required,” wrote Mr Tan. “Any withholding of the S&CC grant amounting to S$ 7 million per year will therefore affect residents if AHPETC is unable to pay for essential services.”
NSP also supported the move to enforce greater standards of accountability and governance, but said that this should not lead to a penalty framework in the management of town councils that would impact on town councillors who are, first and foremost, Members of Parliament.
“A MP’s fundamental duty is to represent his constituents who elected him or her and to participate in the functions of Parliament,” said Mr Tan. “This duty cannot and should never be subjugated to any other duty. By putting in place a penalty framework in relation to town councillors who are also MPs, the concern is whether such a framework would lead to their secondary role as town councillors overshadowing and undermining their primary role as MPs.”
NSP also noted that the constant accusations of an un-level playing field and political bias, which opposition MPs have often raised against the government.
“NSP hopes that the government will re-examine the political wisdom of the notion that the competency of political parties aspiring to form the national government can be tested through their management of town councils,” said Mr Tan. “Such a notion has no empirical basis. The ability to manage a town council and the ability to govern the country have no correlation whatsoever. Any suggestion of a correlation would imply that the best people to govern the country are town planners and estate managers, which cannot be true.”
Mr Tan recalled that the first generation of government leaders were “fully capable of governing the country” although they were by no means managing town councils, and they have depended on a politically neutral civil service to fulfil that task.
“NSP urges the government to consider allowing town councils to be managed by a statutory board or a centralised agency instead,” said Mr Tan, “so that residents will not only benefit from a seamless continuation of all services when there is a change of town councillors who are MPs from a different political party but also from lower S&CC charges because of economy of scale.”
“Residents will be spared the vagaries of a political change in what is essentially a municipal function that can be performed by those equipped with the knowledge and skills to manage estates. If the management of town councils continues to be politically charged, public confidence in our political system will continue to be eroded.”
Some of us might be bewildered by what happened in Parliament last week, when a motion was tabled to discuss at length about the Accounting General’s investigation into the finances of Aljunied Hougang Punggol East Town Council.
Two whole days were spent niggling over the finances of a single town council, with various Ministers taking the stand to chastise, lambast, accuse and denigrate the effectiveness and integrity of the Workers’ Party Members of Parliament in charge of AHPETC, who then had to defend themselves against these allegations.
That was followed up by countless media reports, and even all the way to this week, we can hear the topic being discussed on national radio. The circus continues.
With such a big fuss, what exactly was the issue about, you might ask?
The Minister for National Development Mr Khaw Boon Wan would have you believe that it was about transparency and accountability. Much was said about how AHPETC was not able to cobble together a proper audit report, the figures were all in a mess, and how the way its managing agent attended to the affairs of the town council was anything but lawful.
Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim
Indeed, AHPETC has a lot to answer for. The dearth of any managing agent or existing company willing to take up contracts run by opposition party town councils might mean the need for the party to appoint a preferred vendor that has little experience in running such affairs, but it then becomes the party’s obligation to ensure that nothing should ever slip through the cracks.
This has nothing to do with the risk of being picked on by their opposition, but the simple need to break in new vendors and ensure they can more than adequately comply with existing regulations.
Yet for all the accountably owing, is this issue worthy of time in Parliament and national media? In truth, AHPETC needs to address the concerns of its residents in how their money had been used. This issue is at best a municipal one, hardly worth a two-day debate in the House.
In spite of all the red marks AHPETC received in its annual town council audits by MND, to question the effectiveness of its leaders is very different from questioning their integrity. In fact, putting the same spotlight of scrutiny that AGO had on any other town council might have yielded similar results.
What is of national concern, however, was not given the air time it deserves in Parliament. We are talking about many millions more, given to the government led by the ruling People’s Action Party for the management of the nation, yet with clear transgressions of proper accountability. We are talking about yet another report by AGO, this time on the financial irregularities in government agencies. This is not money given to one town council, but money that an entire nation of tax-payers had entrusted to the government. Were any of these financial issues debated as robustly as AHPETC’s finances?
Oddly, a recent media report on radio, where reporters actually went to the Aljunied ward to talk to residents to get their views on the issue, indicated that residents generally trust AHPETC to do the right thing, and indeed, their neighbourhoods are no worse than before despite the fracas.
Heng Swee Keat
That aside, it is perhaps a tad contradictory that the actions by Mr Heng’s colleague should disagree with his concerns for the residents. For all the review to the Town Council Act that Mr Khaw had promised, his Ministry’s decision on the matter was to withhold about S$7 million of service and conservancy charges grants for the financial year 2014 from AHPETC until it can fill in the gaps for its finances.
Is this withholding of funds meant to penalise AHPETC, or to punish the residents? Where exactly is PAP’s focus on this issue? Has it lost focus, or did it have any to begin with?
In net effect, the berating of AHPETC using precious time in Parliament was not about accountability. It was also not about the rights of citizens, as the actions of MND have proved. But if it was about politics, then it was clearly not the smart kind.
Indeed, Mr Heng had claimed that the issue was not about partisan politics. Perhaps he was right. Partisan politics would require that you put in some effort to defend your party’s interest against your opponent. What we saw in Parliament last week was little more than the PAP going for WP’s jugular, completely disregarding that the ground had already been stained with its own blood.
PAP, in letting its key office holders loose to freely attack WP, need to realise that the residents of Alijunied, Hougang and Punggol East did not vote in WP because they wanted MPs who are fantastic at running their estates. By PAP’s own admission – and in case it has forgotten – WP won because voters wanted WP to be their voice in Parliament.
Last week, voters saw that voice being drowned out in Parliament and in media. One can only wonder what their reaction might be, come the next general elections.
If this had been about projecting a positive perception among the electorate, WP might have taken a bruising, but it was surely the PAP that has bashed itself to a pulp. But of course, it is not. It has been about, and will always be told to be about, public accountability and the interest of residents – if you would believe it.
National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan today (Feb 12) rebuked the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC), saying their behaviour is “unacceptable”.
He was speaking in Parliament on the Auditor-General’s audit on the town council, which had flagged several major lapses in “governance and compliance”. The report is “a sad commentary on the state of affairs at AHPETC, he said, adding that MND will take action.
POOR PATTERN OF BEHAVIOUR
Mr Khaw said the AHPETC exercised a lack of transparency, and failed to disclose things on time or submit required reports, adding that they “came up with yet another excuse”, when the ministry gave them reminders. Financial reports aside, he said the town council’s FY2013 cyclical maintenance works report – which informs MND of any delays in replacing major infrastructure – was also late for more than six months and was incomplete and inaccurate, he said.
This is serious as it potentially impacts on public health and safety, he said. “Why are reports from AHPETC always outstanding?”
Secondly, the town council appointed a related party, FMSS as its managing agent, he said. The owners are husband and wife – with the former becoming AHPETC’s secretary while the latter became its general manager.
He asked: “Why did AHPETC not disclose these related party transactions and take steps to prevent the risk of abuse when the companies it gave contracts to were owned by its key officers?”
He also said that FMSS was paid “abnormally high fees”, some 20 per cent higher than the previous managing agent that ran Aljunied and 50 per cent more than a comparable town council. The supposed “up-scaled and developed financial system” it had embarked on could not even track and make simple monthly arrears reports, as AHPETC said it had to resort to manual counting, he noted.
Mr Khaw also called out AHPETC’s Members of Parliament, pointing out that they have been “side-stepping and avoiding responsibility”. “I do expect them to exercise close supervision, and when problems arise or issues are highlighted, to step up and take responsibility, to look into them quickly and address them squarely,” he said.
“Unfortunately, throughout this AHPETC saga, we have found the MPs running the AHPETC to be evasive, unresponsive and misleading,” he said. “In response to legitimate queries from auditors, my MND officials, and their own residents and the media, they stone-walled, deflected the queries, made false or dishonest claims, raised irrelevant excuses and sought to confuse the public with a flurry of red-herrings.”
A total of 45 questions were submitted by Members of Parliament for this sitting: Thirty-three questions for oral answer and 12 for written answer.
Minister of National Development Khaw Boon Wan will move a motion on the Auditor-General’s report on the AHPETC, which flagged major lapses in “governance and compliance”.
The Members of Parliament have also submitted questions on a wide range of topics, covering childcare centres, public transport fees, the Productivity and Innovation Credit scheme and the rental or sale of HDB flats, among others.
The State Lands (Amendment) Bill and the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill will be introduced during this Parliament sitting. The second reading for the Deep Seabed Mining Bill will also be deliberated.
The report by the Auditor-General following its audit of the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) revealed that key individuals running the town council also have stakes in companies it hired to manage its estates.
Experts have said that in cases where there are such conflicts of interests, a possible solution may be to have an independent body overseeing some of the town council’s management processes, such as when it calls for tenders.
Lapses in the management of related party transactions were among the findings in the Auditor-General’s report that was released on Monday (Feb 9).
The Auditor-General’s report found that AHPETC had hired two managing agents to carry out estate maintenance services. One of these was FM Solutions and Services Management (FMSS), which was first set up in May 2011.
FMSS’ managing director, general manager and two deputy general managers are shareholders in the company. They are also on the management board of the AHPETC – holding the position of secretary, general manager and deputy general managers.
AHPETC’s secretary also owns FM Solutions and Integrated Services (FMSI), a sole proprietorship. FMSI was engaged as a managing agent to manage precincts under the Hougang Town Council from April 2011 to June 2012.
Among the lapses highlighted in the Auditor-General’s report, it was found that a fee of S$1.28 million paid to the two companies for services during the financial year of 2012 to 2013 was not recorded in its financial statements.
Invoices made to the two companies were also issued and signed by the town council’s general manager and secretary, who were acting in their capacity as director of FMSS and owner of FMSI respectively.
The report said the town councils did not adequately manage the conflicts of interests that arose.
Associate Professor Mak Yuen Tee, who is with the National University of Singapore Business School, said: “The minimum is to declare and make people aware that you have those conflicts, to then not be involved on both sides of the transactions. In other words, you should not be verifying the payments and then approving the payments.
“Ideally, you want a situation where you are not sitting on both sides – either you step off the town council or you do not get involved with the managing agent.”
A possible alternative is to have an independent body overseeing some of the management processes like tenders for projects where there might be potential conflicts of interests.
Assoc Prof Mak added: “If you need estate management services, one issue would be what are the available options out there. If you call a tender, are you able to get different organisations to participate in the tender?
“I am involved in organisations where we call tenders and sometimes you do not have enough options and you end up selecting from a list of one. Ideally, you do not want that to happen but sometimes it will. If that happens and you end up in a related party situation, then that is where you need to take steps to mitigate that by involving people who are independent to review and to approve.”
Another solution is to develop or adopt a framework that can help the town council improve its management processes and manage risks.
Mr Sidney Lim, managing director of Protiviti Singapore, a company that deals with corporate governance, said: “The framework essentially looks at the three different risks that organisations face – the compliance risk, operational risk and reporting risk. And what is in the framework is a series of processes as well as components to help them manage and improve on corporate governance.”
