On Tuesday, MND said it has also cancelled a rectification order issued to AHTC in January 2020, which required the town council to restrict Ms Lim and Mr Low’s powers in handling some of its financial matters.
This was to “guard against a recurrence of irregularities in AHTC’s financial affairs”, after the High Court found at the time that both Ms Lim and Mr Low had breached their fiduciary duties to AHTC.
Ms Lim and Mr Low appealed the judgment, although AHTC complied with the order.
The Court of Appeal’s findings – released in two parts in November 2022 and July this year – eventually determined that Ms Lim and Mr Low did not owe fiduciary duties to AHTC.
But MND noted that the Apex Court did find that Ms Lim, Mr Low, Mr Singh, then-AHTC councillors Chua Zhi Hon and Kenneth Foo, as well as former town council managing agent director How Weng Fan and her late husband Danny Loh, did not act in good faith in the discharge of their duties, and in payment processes.
“This is a serious finding,” MND said on Tuesday, adding that the Court of Appeal “also found them to be
grossly negligent”.
They allowed the managing agent FMSS – a service provider hired to help run day-to-day operations in the town – to pay money to itself and others “without proper controls”, and that money could be paid, “even if work was not done, or not properly done”, said MND.
Ms Lim was also found responsible for awarding a contract to Red-Power Electrical Engineering at rates that were four to seven times higher than those offered by then-existing vendors Digo Corporation and Terminal 9.
MND noted that Ms Lim and Mr Singh remain AHTC councillors, with the former sitting on the audit committee and estate and community liaison committee.
Mr Singh chairs the public relations committee, and is also a member of the tenders and contracts committee, as well as the estate and community liaison committee.
“As such, they may continue to be involved in implementing and/or monitoring AHTC’s payment process, as well as make procurement decisions,” MND said.
Besides writing to the town council to seek information on the duo’s specific powers and duties when it comes to AHTC’s payment and procurement processes, the ministry wanted to know the other actions that AHTC intends to take in relation to them, given the Court of Appeal’s findings.