MND disbursing AHPETC S&CC operating grants for FY14/15 and FY15/16 to AHTC and PRPTC
The conditional release may restore funding for estate operations while strengthening payment oversight, potentially reducing service disruption risks for affected HDB residents.
MND will disburse withheld FY2014/15 and FY2015/16 operating grants to AHTC under financial safeguards, while Punggol East’s share will go to PRPTC.
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MND will be disbursing the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) Service and Conservancy Charges (S&CC) operating grants for FY 2014/15 and FY 2015/161 to Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) and Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council (PRPTC).
In its Judgment dated 27 November 2015, the Court of Appeal (CA) made various orders against AHPETC to compel its compliance with the Town Councils Act (TCA) and Town Councils Financial Rules (TCFR). This included an order that AHPETC must appoint independent accountant(s) to assist in identifying its outstanding non-compliances with Section 35(c) of the TCA, advise it on appropriate remedial steps to be taken, and establish whether any past payments made by AHPETC were improper and ought therefore to be recovered.
The CA orders would see that the Town Council takes steps to rectify its outstanding non-compliances of the TCA and TCFR with the assistance of its appointed accountant(s). The Minister for National Development has hence decided, pursuant to Section 42 of the TCA, to disburse the grants to AHTC, subject to conditions. These include AHTC appointing accountant(s) as required under the CA Judgment, setting up segregated bank accounts to receive the grants and getting the accountant(s) to co-authorise and co-sign large payments out of these accounts.
AHTC has since appointed KPMG LLP as its accountant and confirmed that it fully accepts all conditions set by MND in relation to the grants. With these safeguards in place, MND will be disbursing the grants to AHTC.
Following the 2015 General Election, all assets, rights and liabilities pertaining to Punggol East SMC have been transferred from AHTC to PRPTC with effect from 1 Dec 2015. This legal position is set out in the Town Councils (Declaration of Towns) Order 2015. Accordingly, the operating grants attributable to Punggol East SMC will be disbursed to PRPTC.
1 MND had earlier withheld the grants from AHPETC in view of the many weaknesses and lapses in AHPETC identified by its own auditors and the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) report dated 6 February 2015.