Judgement reserved for MND's AHPETC appeal

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

The National Development Ministry had appealed against a High Court decision rejecting its application to have independent accountants appointed to the Workers' Party-run Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council.

• By Kyle Malinda
• POSTED: 03 Aug 2015 16:21
• UPDATED: 03 Aug 2015 16:30

• PHOTOS

Aljunied GRC MP Pritam Singh and AHPETC chairman Sylvia Lim leaving court. (Photo: Kyle Malinda)







SINGAPORE: Judgment was reserved by the apex court Monday (Jun 3) after an appeal was heard on an application from the Ministry of National Development (MND) to admit independent accountants to co-sign future payments with the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC).


The High Court had earlier thrown out MND's application to have independent accountants appointed to safeguard town council monies, saying MND did not establish legal basis for it.


MND's lawyer, Deputy Chief Counsel Aurill Kam Su Cheun, maintained that although the Town Councils Act does not specifically say if the courts can admit the accountants, the law says that the Supreme Court can make an order of compliance "as it thinks proper".


As such, Ms Kam said that in order to ensure proper accounting procedures are in order, the appointment of the accountants would enable the courts to have their eyes and ears on the ground and not just issue a "paper judgment".


According to Ms Kam, doing so alluded to the law's provision for affected parties to seek redress if town council monies were not being managed properly. Such redress had to be acknowledged by the courts, she said.


However, AHPETC's lawyer, Peter Low, insisted that the act had "no express provision" for the courts to bring in the accountants, noting that the law is "too broad" to ask the courts to do anything more than issuing an order of compliance.


Ms Kam clarified that the accountants would be agents of the court acting in the "interest of all parties". She said the Government is not asking for the accountants to take over the town council, but to only ensure they co-sign on disbursements of new monies.


AHPETC was found to have flouted the Town Councils Act and Town Council Financial Rules by failing to transfer S$12.46 million into sinking fund bank accounts. The Government has since withheld about S$14 million in grants to the town council as a result.


The sinking fund transfers have still not been made by AHPETC as of Q1 this year, Kam said.


A case was also heard for the Housing and Development Board (HDB) to become a co-plaintiff in the case. Ms Kam said that HDB "has an interest as a capacity of the owner of common property", noting that HDB would still own unoccupied flats as there were no tenants in them to pay service and conservancy charges to.


In the High Court judgment that rejected MND's case, Justice Quentin Loh had ruled that the law allows only the HDB or residents to take legal action against a town council if it fails to perform its duties.


Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon however, raised doubts on the courts issuing an order of compliance, noting that the town council should already know it is in the wrong if it had flouted the law.


Judge of Appeal Andrew Phang added that if it was important that the courts could exercise discretion in such matters, Parliament would have placed provisions in the law specifying how the courts would come in.


AHPETC chairman Sylvia Lim declined to comment following the appeals session, but Aljunied GRC Member of Parliament Pritam Singh said that the town council will "leave the judgment into the hands of the court".


The judgment is set to be delivered at a date to be fixed by the Court of Appeal.


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