WP leaders close bank account used to fund-raise for AHTC case, donate balance to charity

SINGAPORE – Workers’ Party leaders involved in long-running civil suits brought against them by two town councils have closed their joint bank account used to raise funds from the public, and donated the remaining monies to charity.

WP chief Pritam Singh, party chairman Sylvia Lim and former party chief Low Thia Khiang said in an Oct 2 post on their fund-raising blog that the

conclusion of the court cases in July 2024 following an out-of-court settlement

meant there was no longer a need to maintain the bank account.

The balance in the bank account of $5,826.14 has been donated to the WP Community Fund, a registered charity set up by the WP to serve families in need, they added.

“The court proceedings have taken seven years to conclude,” they said. “We thank everyone who has, in one way or another, walked with us through this episode.”

Separately, the three WP leaders said they had donated more than $57,000 to Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) and Sengkang Town Council (SKTC).

This money was a portion of the over $230,000 in costs that the Court of Appeal ordered AHTC and SKTC to pay the trio in November 2023. It was what remained after about $173,000 was used for their lawyers’ bills from November 2023 to the conclusion of their work.

The WP leaders said that they had personally paid more than $1.4 million out of the $3.1 million in legal fees incurred since the lawsuits were filed in 2017. While they could have kept the $57,000 as partial reimbursement, the trio said they instead opted to donate the money to the two town councils.

The years-long saga can be traced back to May 2011, when the WP achieved a historic triumph by winning Aljunied GRC – the first time an opposition party won a group representation constituency.

AHTC was then formed to manage the Aljunied and Hougang constituencies, and the town council appointed FM Solutions & Services (FMSS) as its managing agent without calling for a tender. FMSS was set up by longtime WP supporters Danny Loh and How Weng Fan, who both went on to hold dual roles in AHTC and FMSS.

After an audit by the Auditor-General’s Office in 2015 found several lapses in AHTC’s governance and compliance, the town council was ordered to appoint accountants to fix the lapses.

A subsequent audit by KPMG in 2016 found that AHTC had made $33.7 million in improper payments to FMSS and its subsidiary.

AHTC, through an independent panel, then took several WP leaders and town councillors to court in 2017 over the improper payments. The town council also sued FMSS.

A related suit was filed by Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council for losses allegedly incurred while the WP ran Punggol East, which it had won in the 2013 by-election but ceded back to the PAP at the general election in 2015.

SKTC took over this lawsuit after the WP won Sengkang GRC in the 2020 General Election. This was as Punggol East had become part of Sengkang GRC because of changes to electoral boundaries.

In October 2018, the trial relating to the two suits began. In the same month, the WP leaders put up a website appealing to the public for funds to cover their legal fees, saying that they had already paid their lawyers close to $600,000 for work done before the trial commenced.

Within three days, the WP MPs raised more than $1 million from the public, and closed their appeal for funds.

The case wound its way through the courts over the years, with the Court of Appeal finding in a November 2022 judgment that the WP leaders and town councillors did not owe AHTC fiduciary duties and had acted in good faith in hiring FMSS.

But the apex court also found that the town councillors were negligent in allowing conflicts of interest to persist at AHTC, and were thus liable for some of the damages.

The court further ruled in November 2023 that Mr Singh, Ms Lim and Mr Low would be able to recover some legal fees from AHTC and SKTC, as they had succeeded substantially in their appeals.

In July 2024, the WP leaders, together with AHTC and SKTC, said they had

agreed to an out-of-court settlement

following mediation.

AHTC and SKTC dropped their claims for damages and costs against the WP leaders, while the WP leaders also dropped their claims for costs against the town councils. FMSS also reached a settlement with the town councils.