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Tag: Workers Party

  • Bernard Chen: Lee Kuan Yew Would Not Have Approved Of Malay President Through Affirmative Action

    Bernard Chen: Lee Kuan Yew Would Not Have Approved Of Malay President Through Affirmative Action

    The PAP turns 62 today. A week ago, they spoke up for and stood by affirmative action, the very principle that its founding members fought against, every tooth and every nail. The irony passes them by as they legitimises it with an overwhelming vote in Parliament.

    Unlike affirmative action apologists, the late Lee Kuan Yew would never rush into positions for appearance sake. He would have turned in his grave, literally and metaphorically. He took what he saw as a Malaysian Malaysian, put everything on the line and took us out of a merger that he had so vehemently believed in. The conviction in their spirits then, soulless today. The PAP of 2016 turned their back on what the pioneer generation believed, the same generation whom they had so profusely thanked in 2015. We the younger ones were asked to learn from our pioneers. They have clearly forgotten all of that today.

    I grew up being told by my PAP leaders that affirmative action is not what Singapore believes in. Look at Malaysia, affirmative action. Singapore wants none of that. Now we have affirmative action delivered on a plate by that parliamentary majority. Sad, none of the sitting MPs thought that this was so so wrong. None. And they say they have the interests of Singapore at heart. The temerity, the audacity, the tragedy of it all.

    Today, we have nothing but this obscurantist doctrine, reinforced by the sitting Minister for Malay-Muslim affairs. Simply to get a ceremonial position for a Malay and their problem as a community will be resolved. This is no different as how easily a bill gets passed in a parliament heavily skewed in the favour of these new apologists. The whole clan [and parliament] celebrates. It was not too long ago they call members on the other side of the spectrum chauvinists and discredit them with the might of the machinery.

    They clutched at straws but wielded the stick with the blank cheque they were given. The recent amendments to the Constitution is an indictment of how far the PAP had deviated from their beliefs and founding principles. Just cut the rhetoric. This is a totally different party today, from what it was in 1954.

    With you, for you, for Singapore. The hypocrisy. The PAP of 2016. Happy 62nd Birthday, the leviathan that is the PAP. Barely recognisable from the one that ushered in independent Singapore in 1965.

    The next time, when you say you believe in the PAP, remember to opt yourself out from that affirmative action that is now a part of the PAP’s DNA. Guilt by association, as they say.

    Source: Chen Jiaxi Bernard

  • TOC Chief Editor: Halimah Yacob Biased Against WP MPs In Parliament

    TOC Chief Editor: Halimah Yacob Biased Against WP MPs In Parliament

    <Facebook post by Terry Xu>

    My bet is Halimah Yaccob. Then you have the claim that Singapore is progressive with a female President and a Malay one somemore.

    I have seen for my eyes how biased is Halimah Yaccob towards the PAP ministers and MP against WP’s in Parliament as the Speaker of Parliament, what more to say if she is the President.

    Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

  • WP Chief Low Thia Khiang: KPMG Report On Past Payments & Transactions ‘Inconclusive’

    WP Chief Low Thia Khiang: KPMG Report On Past Payments & Transactions ‘Inconclusive’

    The audit report on the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council’s (AHTC) past payments and transactions remains “inconclusive” despite the manpower and resources spent, said Workers’ Party (WP) chief Low Thia Khiang on Wednesday (Nov 2).

    Mr Low was making his first comments on audit firm KPMG’s finding that flawed governance in the WP-run AHTC had exposed millions in public funds to improper use, to the extent there could be criminal conduct if lapses were deliberate.

    “The report seems to have a lot of answering (to do) despite the fact that they had deployed a lot of manpower, public monies (were) used, and eight months spent,” said Mr Low, who was speaking to reporters before the start of his fortnightly Meet-the-People Session at the void deck of Block 522 Hougang Avenue 6. “The town council also spent a lot of manpower responding to their queries. The MPs were also being interviewed to satisfy their questions, but unfortunately the report seems to be inconclusive in that sense. So that’s it.”

    KPMG’s 68-page report, which was made public by AHTC on its website on Tuesday, flagged “serious conflicts of interest” and a “failed control environment” which exposed millions of dollars in public funds to improper use, including in payments to its former managing agent FM Solutions & Services and service provider FM Solutions and Integrated Services.

    The owners of these two companies concurrently held key management and financial control positions in the town council and approved 132 payment vouchers amounting to more than S$23 million from the town council to the company.

    KPMG also said improper payments to FMSS and FMSI alone amounted to over S$1.5 million, of which at least S$600,000 ought to be recovered by the town council.

    The improper payments to FMSS and FMSI included overpayments for project management fees, overpayments to FMSS for purported overtime and CPF contributions payments to FMSS without certification that work had been performed, as well as payments made without the requisite co-signature of members of the town council.

    AHTC also overpaid when it appointed FMSS as its managing agent by more than S$1.2 million.

    Responding to these issues, Mr Low reiterated the points in a statement issued by his party on Tuesday, saying KPMG had found “no fictitious, fraudulent, nor duplicate payments”.

    “So that is what is important for the public to know,” he added.

    Mr Low also said the report “has not said anything” about conflicts of interest among the WP Members of Parliament, the town councillors, FMSS, and other contractors it appointed.

    “To me, the report is simply more detailed than AGO’s report, in terms of the framework, and the kind of lapses they found are basically as the AGO’s but in more detail, yes, because they had spent a lot of time going through the records. It is a forensic audit,” he added.

    Mr Low was referring to a special audit by the Auditor-General’s Office that found major lapses in compliance and governance in AHTC. The finding led to a High Court ordering AHTC to appoint auditors to fix these lapses.

    After fielding questions for five minutes, Mr Low ended the doorstop interview, saying the town council was still studying KPMG’s report and would issue media releases on the matter, if necessary.

    Meanwhile, Nanyang Technological University accounting professor El’fred Boo said the proposed amendments to the Town Councils Act would help strengthen governance in a few ways, such as how to avoid conflict of interest situations. But he felt that there could be other changes, such as a requirement to set clear objectives and performance milestones to make it easier to assess them and hold them accountable.

    More regular compliance audits could also be made a requirement to boost the Ministry of National Development’s ability to monitor the situation at individual town councils, said Associate Professor Boo. At the same time, there should be a channel for people to report matters of concern to the town council chairman and/or MND, he added.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • WP Member Bernard Chen: Free Travel For Singaporeans Until Fundamental Issues With Public Transportation Are Fixed

    WP Member Bernard Chen: Free Travel For Singaporeans Until Fundamental Issues With Public Transportation Are Fixed

    Until our transport companies and the Ministry get their act together, Singaporeans should be granted free travel on our entire transport network. #justsaying #notsocrazyanidea. #onlyfair. Why should consumers made to pay for a system that is so unreliable and inefficient? I pay a fare to get from point A to point B, not to be stuck on the platform, or in between stations. If the service is not rendered, only fair that consumers need not pay. And why must I pay for your provision of “free bus services” whenever the trains don’t run. #mightaswelldontbuildraillines.

    When their pockets are severely hit, then probably we can finally see some tangible improvements to our public transport system. It is not about paying more for the system for it to be better. It is about sorting out the fundamental problems before you ask consumers to pay. Provide a service first, and consumers will pay. #logicofgovernanceinSingapore#everythingalso讲钱.

     

    Source: Chen Jiaxi Bernard

  • KPMG: ‘Pervasive Control Failures’ In AHTC

    KPMG: ‘Pervasive Control Failures’ In AHTC

    Independent auditors have found that flawed governance in the Workers’ Party-run Aljunied Hougang Town Council (AHTC) led to improper payments running into the millions to various parties, including to its former managing agent FM Solutions & Services (FMSS) and service provider FM Solutions and Integrated Services (FMSI).

    In a report made public on the town council’s website on Tuesday (Nov 1), KPMG said improper payments to FMSS and FMSI alone amounted to over S$1.5 million.

    AHTC also overpaid when it appointed FMSS as its managing agent by more than S$1.2 million, said KPMG, which was appointed by AHTC on court orders to help fix compliance and governance lapses uncovered in a special audit by the Auditor-General’s Office.

    Flagging “serious conflicts of interest” and a “failed control environment” at the town council, the auditing firm also warned that if the issues involving FMSS and FMSI were deliberate, “they could amount to criminal conduct, the implications of which the Town Council should consider”.

    KPMG’s latest report centred on improper payments made by the council to various parties, in particular to FMSS and FMSI, which were appointed between 2011 and last year.

    Their appointments “exposed the Town Council to serious conflicts of interest as the direct owners of FMSS and FMSI (with a profit motive) concurrently held key management and financial control positions in the Town Council (charged with a service motive)”, said KPMG.

    For example, Mr Danny Loh – who died last year – was secretary in the town council as well as shareholder of FMSS, and sole proprietor of FMSI.

    “The situation of FMSS is unlike that of the Town Council’s previous managing agents. In the former case, those approving payments for the Town Councils were not beneficiaries engaging in a profit-motive transaction with the Town Council,” said KPMG.

    In the case of FMSS, the “conflicted persons” were in effect “approving payments to themselves”.

    Meanwhile, the Town Councillors relinquished an “unacceptably high degree of financial responsibility” to the conflicted persons.

    “In this regard, payments with an aggregate financial value of at least SG$23 million involved approvals by the conflicted persons of payments in effect to themselves through payment vouchers, which is an important gateway in the Town Council’s payment approval process,” KPMG said.

    In this “failed control environment”, the improper payments to FMSS and FMSI included amongst others, overpayments to FMSS for project management fees, overpayments to FMSS for purported overtime and CPF contributions payments to FMSS without certification that work had been performed, as well as payments to FMSS that were made without the requisite co-signature of members of the town council.

    These amounted to about S$1.5 million, of which at least S$600,000 ought to be recovered by the town council, said KPMG.

    The firm also said the tendering out of the contracts to FMSS and FMSI was “deficient in numerous respects”.

    For one, for the first managing agent contract, FMSS was more expensive than the comparable contract with the former Aljunied Town Council managing agent.

    When the contract was renewed — the second managing agent contract — the rates increased significantly. The increase in the managing agent’s costs in the first year under FMSS amounted to approximately S$500,000, while under the second managing agent contract the rates were, conservatively, S$700,000 million more that what might have cost to retain CPG as the managing agent.

    Overall, KPMG reported “pervasive” control failures cutting across key areas of AHTC’s governance, financial control, financial reporting, procurement and records management over the audit period. Such flawed governance has potential to “conceal and hinder the detection and identification of all instances of proper payment”, said the accountants.

    As a result, KPMG said it was unable to conclude whether the improper payments and the amounts that ought to be recovered identified in the report are exhaustive.

    Noting that it is beyond the auditors’ mandate to conclude whether an offence has been committed, KPMG said: “While our work was not focused on identifying potential criminal acts arising from the issues we observed, we are advised that, had the shortcomings (identified in) this report been committed deliberately, they could amount to criminal conduct, the implications of which the town council should consider.”

    AHTC said it is studying the report and will respond in due course.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com