"MND applies to Court for independent accountants to safeguard Govt grants to AHPETC - The Straits Times 20 March 2015
SINGAPORE - The Ministry of National Development (MND) has applied to Court to appoint independent accountants to safeguard Government grants to the Workers' Party-run Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) and to oversee its use of those grants.
MND said that the court documents were served on AHPETC on Friday. This is a step that MND is taking before disbursing several million in government grants to AHPETC.
Grants are disbursed to all town councils, but MND has withheld AHPETC's grants for FY2014 due to concerns over lapses in governance and compliance at Opposition town council.
In a parliamentary debate last month over these lapses, found by the Auditor-General's Office after a year-long audit, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan had said that AHPETC would not get the grants, which are about $7million annually, until it sets its house in order."
It is good the MND is concerned about how the 'S&CC Operating Grant' for FY2014 will be disbursed by seeking the court to appoint an independent accountants to provide added safeguard given the challenges faced by AHPETC.
It is understood that many of the 4 disclaimers made by the AHTC (before PE was added) auditors for FY2011/2012 related to 'opening balances' when the WP team took over from the non-elected ATC PAP team after the GE2011. Ms Sylvia Lim at a point in time also shared that when the AHTC asked for help from MND to intervene, presumably to 'request' the departing Managing Agent and the ATC team to help clear those 'closing balances', which become the 'unresolved opening balances', no or little actions were forthcoming.
It would have been nice and decent had MND acted, or maybe it did but it had no power over the departing MA and ATC folks. Now on 2nd thought, MND could have also applied to the court to 'request' that the departing team MUST clear any 'unresolved closing balances' before passing to the newly elected team.
That would be great for the nation as elected politicians get to work on the real issues instead of been bogged down with 'clearing unresolved opening balances' that they are pretty helpless without help from the proper and rightful authorities.
That said, it is incumbent upon the incoming team to CONTINUE to highlight what efforts they had done and the responses they got to the RESIDENTS of the town or towns they are officially put in charge of.
Maybe this a lesson to learn for WP if they win another GRC in future GE.
It makes good sense that the S&CC Operating Grant NOT be held up as the welfare and wellbeing of the residents without this grant will be affected negatively.
The governance challenges and the higher than normal S&CC in Arrears that were flagged in MND's Town Council Performance Matrix showed that the 'normal functioning' of maintenance of common areas of AHPETC is still working reasonably well. That the RESIDENTS of AHPETC are getting some normalcy of life. THAT should be the PRIMARY focus for now.
IF AHPETC can satisfy the independent accountants, assuming the court agreed to MND's application, let the RESIDENTs live their lives and the politicians can sort out the medium and longer term issues and challenges.
SINGAPORE - The Ministry of National Development (MND) has applied to Court to appoint independent accountants to safeguard Government grants to the Workers' Party-run Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) and to oversee its use of those grants.
MND said that the court documents were served on AHPETC on Friday. This is a step that MND is taking before disbursing several million in government grants to AHPETC.
Grants are disbursed to all town councils, but MND has withheld AHPETC's grants for FY2014 due to concerns over lapses in governance and compliance at Opposition town council.
In a parliamentary debate last month over these lapses, found by the Auditor-General's Office after a year-long audit, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan had said that AHPETC would not get the grants, which are about $7million annually, until it sets its house in order."
It is good the MND is concerned about how the 'S&CC Operating Grant' for FY2014 will be disbursed by seeking the court to appoint an independent accountants to provide added safeguard given the challenges faced by AHPETC.
It is understood that many of the 4 disclaimers made by the AHTC (before PE was added) auditors for FY2011/2012 related to 'opening balances' when the WP team took over from the non-elected ATC PAP team after the GE2011. Ms Sylvia Lim at a point in time also shared that when the AHTC asked for help from MND to intervene, presumably to 'request' the departing Managing Agent and the ATC team to help clear those 'closing balances', which become the 'unresolved opening balances', no or little actions were forthcoming.
It would have been nice and decent had MND acted, or maybe it did but it had no power over the departing MA and ATC folks. Now on 2nd thought, MND could have also applied to the court to 'request' that the departing team MUST clear any 'unresolved closing balances' before passing to the newly elected team.
That would be great for the nation as elected politicians get to work on the real issues instead of been bogged down with 'clearing unresolved opening balances' that they are pretty helpless without help from the proper and rightful authorities.
That said, it is incumbent upon the incoming team to CONTINUE to highlight what efforts they had done and the responses they got to the RESIDENTS of the town or towns they are officially put in charge of.
Maybe this a lesson to learn for WP if they win another GRC in future GE.
It makes good sense that the S&CC Operating Grant NOT be held up as the welfare and wellbeing of the residents without this grant will be affected negatively.
The governance challenges and the higher than normal S&CC in Arrears that were flagged in MND's Town Council Performance Matrix showed that the 'normal functioning' of maintenance of common areas of AHPETC is still working reasonably well. That the RESIDENTS of AHPETC are getting some normalcy of life. THAT should be the PRIMARY focus for now.
IF AHPETC can satisfy the independent accountants, assuming the court agreed to MND's application, let the RESIDENTs live their lives and the politicians can sort out the medium and longer term issues and challenges.
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