Same eye popping figure that galvanised Desmond Lee into full assault mode, warning of "serious implications for residents", and other dire consequences. Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong also leaped into the foray, crafting a long and verbose commentary to suggest that the town council’s silence on the issue signalled that “something is seriously wrong”. Both have dug for themselves holes so deep they are probably wishing that they had paid more attention to Ms Lim's prudent advice “not to confuse or alarm the public by speculating on whether the S&CC arrears situation has worsened or whether AHPETC is facing ‘bigger problems'”.
Apart from AHPETC, only Potong Pasir received anything other than a “green rating” for S&CC arrears management in the Town Council Management Report. What the architects of that blunt instrument fail to appreciate is that a higher proportion of households in arrears over service and conservancy charges (S&CC) also implies the town council in charge is more forgiving and empathetic in the approach on collections. Instead of harshly imposing a penalty fee of $12 as well as a legal fee of $12.85 over an outstanding sum of $192.90, and inadvertently exposing the lucrative business of legal firms charged with enforcement. Especially firms with close affiliation with town councils.
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Close affiliations have never been an obstacle for money-making in this little red dot. Taking AIM is the name of the game.
ReplyDeleteI hope the AGC's findings will highlight the disruption of financial mgt, manpower need and large money incurred that the sale of Town councils financial and a/cs software to PAP's AIM has impact on AHPETC town council. I hope that when town councils change hand, there will not be a recurrence again. What a waste of money and time and we singaporeans have to bear the cost.
ReplyDeleteA stroke of genius! Well done Sylvia Lim for making fools out of those MPs and ministers who were so quick to jump the gun in critising you, thinking there was a problem they could scandalise you and the WP. This started with their taking AIM but how that misfired!
ReplyDeleteAGC cannot refute facts
ReplyDeleteBut AGC is an expert linguist...
Men in white speak with forked tongues - Tonto
ReplyDeleteNice dig there by Sylvia over the accounting system issue...hahah
ReplyDeleteThe only mistake or root cause of this fiasco can be traced back to the withdrawal of the IT system when WP took over lah.
ReplyDeleteAnyone how works in IT knows that it takes time to custom build any robust IT system., sometimes 1-2 years till full implementation. For the previous governance party to withdraw it or charge them exorbitant prices is totally petty and uncalled for. Wasn't it Khaw who asked them to buy it off-the-shelf?!
Anyone who is smart can see the little dirty games they are playing to obstruct or hinder their deliverance. All so they can paint them as "incompetent" to run town council, let alone a country. They think Singaporeans are daft.
Will we see the day when CSJ the failure will beat the political smart-ass handpicked and parachuted by its masters?
Yes, even if we were to fault the WP for not being meticulous, manual counting is always fraud with potential mistakes, so we have to get back to why the system used by the PAP could not be shared .
DeleteThe MOS who was too happy to taunt the WP should be prepared to be rubbed . He and his men and women in the MND apparently have no audit / reconciliation experience. Interesting.
Actually the part about PAP's secret company owning the software used by the previous Aljunied Town Council is a bit quite sneaky & ridiculous isn't it ?
ReplyDeleteThe Town Council by itself has legally paid for its use and should therefore be allowed to continue using it as long as it wishes even when the running of the Town Council is taken over by an opposition party. So why is PAP seems to be the rascal causing trouble even when the constituents' needs comes first ?
"So why is PAP seems to be the rascal causing trouble even when the constituents' needs comes first ?"
DeleteBecause PAP is on our side.
And with friends like them ...
Money, money & money. These white thieves, liars and bullies.
ReplyDeleteSun Tze Arts of War at work! The generals thought lightly of the enemies.
ReplyDeleteWas told (not sure reliable or not) that WP already knew about this error when the problem was flagged by MND. They wanted to take their time to verify this was the sole source and that correcting for it, the data is fine. It doesn't hurt either, that right about that time, PAP was jumping up and down, with big guns rolling all over the issue. Heck, PM even made reference to it in his recent speech (can't even manage a TC). WP felt then that it'd just given the PAP a long rope to hang themselves and they might as well let PAP get themselves deeper into the hole first. And then in January, came this revelation. Of course, with the subtle reference to the $2 AIM saga, as the real root cause. Looking back, who's the taichi master here??
ReplyDeleteIt may also help reveal moles within TC or WP.
ReplyDeleteSeems like if any moles, they fed inaccurate data back to HQ..
or HQ disregard data and went ahead to seize the opportunity.
Either way... looks like PAP -3, WP +3
The AGC has traditionally been a cunning-linguist. The white whore is his master
ReplyDelete