SINGAPORE: The Court of Appeal on Jul 7 ruled on the liability of the Workers’ Party (WP) leaders embroiled in the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) civil suits.
The court found Ms Sylvia Lim and Mr Low Thia Khiang liable for negligence in the AHTC payments process, but cleared WP chief and Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh over this issue.
The Apex Court also found all three leaders and other town councillors liable for negligence to Sengkang Town Council over the same payments process.
CNA traces the history of the years-long case, what the findings mean and what is likely to occur next.
HOW THE SUITS CAME TO BE
To understand this complex case fully, we first look at the history of how WP came to govern the areas involved.
In May 2011, WP won the five-member Aljunied GRC in the General Election and retained its single seat of Hougang. This was the first time an opposition party had won a GRC.
WP formed the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council, and FM Solutions and Services (FMSS) was set up and hired as the town council’s managing agent.
After WP won the single seat of Punggol East in a by-election in 2013, it folded it into its existing town council and the entity was renamed the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC).
Months later, People’s Action Party (PAP) Members of Parliament questioned WP during a parliamentary debate about a possible conflict of interest. This was because AHPETC’s managing agent, FMSS, was owned by WP supporters.
In February 2015, the Auditor-General’s Office audited AHPETC and found lapses in governance and compliance, including the fact that FMSS owner Danny Loh was the secretary of the town council, with the power to co-sign cheques, while his wife How Weng Fan was the general manager of AHPETC.
WP lost Punggol East to the PAP in the September 2015 General Election, and the town council was named AHTC again.
In November 2015, the Court of Appeal ordered AHTC to appoint accountants to fix lapses found by the Auditor-General’s Office.
Accounting firm KPMG ran an audit and found what it termed “improper payments” worth over S$33.7 million (US$25.4 million) paid to FMSS and its subsidiary FMSI.
In February 2017, AHTC appointed an independent panel to review the findings of the report.
On behalf of AHTC, the independent panel filed a civil suit against the three WP MPs – Ms Sylvia Lim, Mr Low Thia Khiang and Mr Pritam Singh – to claim the money back.
Shortly after, Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council also filed a separate suit against the three WP leaders, for losses allegedly incurred while WP ran Punggol East constituency.
In 2020, after WP won the newly carved-out Sengkang GRC, Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council handed its suit over to Sengkang Town Council, which the defunct Punggol East constituency was now under.
Although the suit by AHTC and the suit by Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council, and later Sengkang Town Council, were separate, the court allowed them to be heard together.
This is not a criminal case, where a person is found guilty and sentenced to a range of options like jail or a fine, but is a civil one where a person found liable might have to pay damages to the suing party.
AT TRIAL
The defendants of the suits are: Ms Lim, Mr Low, Mr Singh, town councillors David Chua Zhi Hon and Kenneth Foo, FMSS’ leaders How Weng Fan and her late husband Danny Loh, and FMSS itself.
The trial for both suits opened in October 2018, with intense coverage by the media and high-profile lawyers on both sides. Senior Counsel Davinder Singh led the team acting for Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council, while a team from Shook Lin and Bok, led by Mr David Chan, represented AHTC.