Parliament: Heng Swee Keat stresses importance of integrity in elected officials

In calling for Workers' Party MPs Sylvia Lim and Low Thia Khiang to stand down from dealing with financial matters at Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said integrity is of utmost importance in elected officials.

"If we cannot trust a politician to tell the truth, we cannot trust him to safeguard public funds, to put the public interest ahead of personal gain, or to make decisions in the best interests of Singapore and Singaporeans," he told the House.

This, he added, was why the People's Action Party (PAP) had always taken accusations of dishonesty against political leaders seriously.

Its fourth-generation leaders intend to continue maintaining high standards, he said, adding that the opposition has to hold itself to the same standards that it rightly applies to the Government.

Mr Heng was explaining to MPs why he introduced the motion following the High Court judgment last month that found both MPs in breach of fiduciary duties.

He noted that Mr Low ran his town council well when he was MP for Hougang - from 1991 to 2011.

But the WP MPs had, after winning Aljunied GRC at the 2011 General Election, appointed their friends to manage the town council at a higher cost than the previous managing agent, concealed the facts from their fellow town councillors, and told untruths to the public, their auditors and Parliament.

He also reminded the House that it was AHTC's own auditors who first issued a disclaimer of opinion on its accounts in 2013.

In the next audit in 2014, he said, the MPs hid details of the transactions with their friends, and refused to give the documents and information to their own auditors.

The same year, the Auditor-General's Office (AGO) carried out an audit but it too was obstructed by the town council. The 2015 AGO report uncovered serious shortcomings in the proper management of public funds.

When the issue was debated in a motion in Parliament, Mr Heng recalled how Ms Lim had shouted "rubbish" and refused to acknowledge the issue.

He said: "I do not know what (the WP) were expecting. Perhaps they felt that somehow the public would forget and give them a free pass since they were an opposition party. They were not used to running a GRC, so the public would 'give chance'?"

He noted that if AHTC were a company, Ms Lim and Mr Low would have at least been interdicted - prohibited or restrained from acting - pending their appeal.

Most likely, they would have been forced to leave the company when problems surfaced, he noted.

Revisiting the issue in his round-up speech, Mr Heng said: "In any reputable organisation, individuals who have fallen short would themselves feel a sense of shame and regret, and would do the right thing unbidden... In the case of AHTC and the WP, all these multiple levels of personal and party responsibility have failed."

He cautioned that Singaporeans have come to expect more from their MPs. If things go unanswered, he said, people would question whether the country was still clean and incorruptible and whether their elected political leaders deserved to be trusted.

He recalled what Mr Low told Parliament in 2015, that the WP was not shy about supporting the motion that was critical of it, but would address and remedy the issues raised by the AGO report. "So, I ask the WP of today - do you still stand for transparency and accountability?"

All the House was asking, Mr Heng said, was for both MPs to recuse themselves from all financial decisions of AHTC. This was the least they could do to give their residents reassurance, given the court's findings, he added.