Desmond Lee, the Minister of State for National Development has also joined in to attack Workers’ Party saying that he is “taken aback” by WP Chief Low Thia Khiang’s response on the “red” rating that it received in a recent MND report on town council management.
The National Development Ministry had once again give Aljunied, Hougang, Punggol East Town Council a “Red” rating in both Corporate Governance and S&CC arrears.
Mr Low Thia Khiang had remarked that residents should not worry about the poor performance ratings that MND had given them.
Mr Lee then took it upon himself to “summarise” the comments made by Mr Low in a media statement and said proceeded to attack his comments.
Mr Lee wrote:
"As at April 2013 (when his TC last reported a shocking arrears rate of 29 per cent), 39,000 households in AHPETC were effectively subsidising 16,000 households who did not pay their S&CC," Mr Lee said in a statement to the media.
If this trend continues, the TC’s finances must surely decline and the TC will not be able to sustain its operations. The delivery of essential services must then be affected, to the detriment of residents. We should bear in mind that all TCs have to replace at their own cost, critical infrastructure, like lifts and water tanks and carry out all sorts of other building, mechanical and electrical repairs.
Mr Low disclosed that Hougang TC had a similar approach to S&CC arrears management. Indeed, its S&CC arrears rate was 7.8 per cent in FY10, the highest amongst all TCs.
But what Mr Low did not disclose is that in the same year, Hougang TC’s own independent Auditor raised concerns regarding the adequacy of the TC’s operating funds to support its daily operations. This is because Hougang TC’s finances were in deficit – it had by then wound up with a net operating deficit of about S$92,000 and an accumulated deficit of about S$9,000.
What Mr Low also did not disclose is that Hougang managed to avoid a cash flow problem only after he merged Hougang with Aljunied after GE 2011. The two TCs’ finances were then co-mingled. Before merger, Aljunied had an operating surplus of $3.3m. Within two years, the merged AHPETC’s financial position has deteriorated rapidly. The operating surplus of $3.3m Aljunied had in FY10 had turned into an operating deficit of S$734,000 in FY12.
AHPETC’s financial position today may in fact be worse. For the TC has not submitted its FY13 financial statements, despite repeated reminders. It has also stopped submitting its monthly S&CC arrears report since May 2013, again despite repeated reminders. This was 10 months before the AGO Audit started in Feb 2014, so it could not be because of the AGO Audit.
And yet Mr Low says AHPETC “has no cash flow problems”. I hope he is correct.”