Town Council "Humor"

Yes, it's true. During WP's Hougang rally for GE2015, WP Chief Low Thia Khiang argued that as AHPETC was not being investigated by the CPIB, therefore it was a sign that there was no wrongdoing.  Source: ST

Such awesome logic right?? I wonder what's LTK's reaction was to the latest Progress Report from KPMG.

Is LTK shocked by the KPMG Report? Is he horrified? Or is he simply glad that CPIB hasn't called up himself or any of his MPs... yet?

And thanks to KPMG, we can now also understand why Pritam Singh kept on refusing to give a direct answer to the questions on AHPETC in Parliament in Feb 2015. 

And Pritam's reason for not answering to the highest authority in our system of government?

Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied GRC): I fully believe when I do my house visits this Saturday, some of these questions (on AHPETC's lapses) will come up. Likewise, they will come up for my fellow WP MPs. We will answer all of them. Why? Because of a duty to the residents. We will answer to them. Well, minister (Shanmugam), if you were a resident, I'll answer your question. Thank you.  Source: ST

There you have it. Pritam thinks that Parliament's authority counts for shit, and he doesn't have to answer any questions he doesn't like.

Thanks yet again to the latest KPMG Progress report, we now totally understand why no one, including AHPETC's previous TC Managing Agent, wanted to bid for the job. They all probably "knew" or guessed there be a ton of shit to clean up.

Actually, the latest KPMG Report explains a lot of why WP / AHPETC / AHTC did what they did since the saga started.

We know that in Jan 2016, WP / AHPETC / AHTC had tried all means and methods to limit the scope of what the Independent Accountants could do and check upon, including going to Court to challenge MND.

Why the wayang, WP? Where's your mantra of being "Accountable" and "Transparent"?

It is obvious now that WP had tried to limit the scope of the Independent Accountants, probably so that their shoddy and potentially illegal / fraudulent accounting practices would not be found and made public.

And when WP fail to limit what the Independent Accountants could do and check upon, WP tried to appoint amateurs  parties which are not qualified to conduct regulatory audit, as the Independent Accountants instead.

WP had probably hoped that by engaging unqualified (for regulatory audit) parties as the Independent Accountants, they could maybe hook-wink the Accountants or even hide the sorry state of affairs from the public.

In the end, BOTH of the WP nominated firms Business Assurance and MRI Moores, withdrew 
from being considered as AHTC's nominated accountants, without providing for any substantial reasons.

Obviously, the Courts saw through WP's ploy to appoint unqualified parties.

In his closing judgment, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon noted that “the task to be undertaken by the accountants appointed should not be underestimated” and that “members of the team of the third nomination do not have licenses of public accountants”.

“But this being a matter of public interest, and public funds should not be delayed further, and a process which has been without success cannot continue indefinitely... the concern should be to appoint an accountant who manifestly has the ability, experience and resources to complete the task.”

Concluded CJ Menon: “We direct the town council to appoint a team of qualified accountants from one of the ‘Big 4’ accounting firms – namely Pricewaterhousecoopers, Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young – within two weeks, in order to undertake the identified tasks.”

And so in a nutshell, here we are today, with the latest KPMG Progress report that simply could not be more horrifying in its findings of WP / AHPETC / AHTC's sheer incompetence in managing the Town Council.

I'll bet my last dollar that this is not the end yet. More skeletons will be unearthed, and a time of reckoning and accounting for those responsible for this mess will be due soon.

Read more here.