Town Councils’ Publication of Financial Statements
The results signal broadly sound municipal financial governance, while unresolved inter-council accounts may affect confidence in the administration of specific public housing estates.
All Town Councils except Aljunied-Hougang submitted FY15/16 audited statements, while its delay caused Pasir Ris-Punggol’s qualified report; the other 14 received unqualified reports.
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Town Councils (TCs) are required by law to submit their audited financial statements to the Minister for National Development, for presentation to Parliament.
All the TCs, except for Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC), have submitted their audited FY15/16 financial statements and these have been presented to Parliament. AHTC has earlier written to MND on 12 August 2016, requesting a time extension to submit its FY15/16 financial statements as it still has outstanding issues to resolve with its auditor. MND has asked AHTC to indicate a timeframe for the completion of its FY15/16 audit and is awaiting the TC’s response.
The delay by AHTC in its financial statements has also impacted Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council (PRPTC), which received a qualification on its financial statements. According to PRPTC’s auditor, the report was qualified solely because it was not able to confirm the accuracy of the amounts due from AHTC for the Punggol East Single Member Constituency (PE SMC). Aside from this matter, PRPTC had no audit observations with regard to the rest of the PRPTC accounts. The other 14 TCs received unqualified reports for their FY15/16 financial statements.
MND will subsequently be publishing the TCs’ Corporate Governance Checklists for FY15/16 on our http://www.towncouncils.sg website.