Parliament: WP gave untenable excuses over hiring of managing agent, says Edwin Tong

The Workers' Party (WP) shifted from "one untenable excuse to another" to justify appointing the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) managing agent without a tender, Senior Minister of State for Law Edwin Tong said yesterday.

The WP-run town council also constantly refused to disclose information to its own auditors and those from the Auditor-General's Office (AGO) and KPMG, "fobbing off inquiry at every turn".

Mr Tong was speaking in support of Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat's motion in Parliament, which followed a High Court verdict last month that found WP leaders Sylvia Lim and Low Thia Khiang had acted dishonestly and in breach of their fiduciary duties.

Referring to the court's findings, Mr Tong said the WP used three "excuses" to justify appointing FM Solutions & Services (FMSS) as the managing agent. The first was that FMSS had to be hired urgently because the existing managing agent, CPG, wanted to terminate its contract at short notice, leaving WP without a managing agent for AHTC.

This narrative was put out repeatedly to the public and in Parliament, said Mr Tong. "But such a narrative was entirely false, one that was designed to give cover to the advancement of their own collateral motives, while at the same time sacrificing the interests of residents".

Second, Mr Tong said WP had said that FMSS was set up only as a contingency, which he called "a wholly untenable position".

"WP was clear and deliberate in themselves not wanting CPG to carry on - so what contingency are we even talking about?" he said, adding that court findings he outlined showed the decision to appoint FMSS was premeditated.

Third, Mr Tong said another "entirely false excuse" from WP was that it was forced to hurriedly appoint FMSS without a tender after the People's Action Party-linked firm Action Information Management (AIM) terminated AHTC's management system.

He pointed out Ms Lim had in fact said in court that AIM had been helpful to her own town council, and FMSS' Ms How Weng Fan had disclosed it was Ms Lim who did not want to extend AIM's contract.

Responding, Ms Lim reiterated WP's position that it would appeal against some of the findings Mr Tong cited. "We have consistently maintained these circumstances were the circumstances we had to deal with in the aftermath of the 2011 General Election...We will also highlight to the judge certain evidences that may not have been given proper weight."

This included the termination notice issued to WP by AIM, she said.

She also noted that AHTC's general manager had told her their own auditors were given full access to the town council's IT systems.

"Regarding the AGO audit... I personally headed a physical search of the town council offices with the AGO team to try to search for some of these documents, so I would refute any suggestion that we tried to hide things from their auditors."