WP leaders close fundraising account for AHTC case; donate balance to charity
The account, opened in 2018, was no longer needed following the conclusion of the court cases in July last year.
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SINGAPORE: A joint bank account used by Workers' Party (WP) leaders to raise public funds for lawsuits filed against them by two town councils has been closed, with the remaining balance donated to charity.
The account, opened in 2018, was no longer needed following the conclusion of the long-running court cases involving Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) and Sengkang Town Council (SKTC) last July, wrote WP chief Pritam Singh, party chairman Sylvia Lim, and former party leader Low Thia Khiang in a blog post on Thursday (Oct 2).
A total of S$5,826.14 (US$4,519) was donated from the account to the WP Community Fund, a registered charity serving needy families, with S$5 used to cover the cashier’s order for the donation.
"The bank account is now closed," they wrote.
"The court proceedings have taken seven years to conclude. We thank everyone who has, in one way or another, walked with us through this episode."
The WP leaders, together with five other defendants, had been accused by AHTC and SKTC of allegedly misusing town council funds.
But in July 2024, the case was settled after mediation, with the town councils dropping their claims and all sides bearing their own legal costs.
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In a separate blog post on Thursday, the WP leaders wrote that they had donated S$26,958.52 to AHTC and S$30,768.51 to SKTC.
"Since the lawsuits started in 2017, the legal costs and disbursements payable to our lawyers totalled more than S$3.1 million," they added.
"The proceedings took seven years, from 2017 to 2024. We wish to acknowledge and thank members of the public, friends and acquaintances for their contributions towards our legal expenses when we needed it.
"Through this long process, we personally have collectively paid more than S$1.4 million towards these legal fees".
They added that in November 2023, the Court of Appeal awarded legal costs of their appeal in their favour, resulting in S$107,696.73 due from AHTC and S$123,004.55 due from SKTC, for a total of S$230,701.28.
The sum apportioned was based on the share of each town council's contribution towards the total cost - 46.7 per cent from AHTC and 53.3 per cent from SKTC.
From November 2023 to date, the WP leaders used a total of S$172,983.97 out of the S$230,701.28 to pay their lawyers' bills up to the conclusion of their work. A balance of S$57,717.31 remained, which was placed in their lawyers’ account.
"As at Aug 27, the amount stood at S$57,727.03, which could have been used to reimburse us for the S$1.4 million we have paid.
"We have, however, donated the balance monies to the town councils in the proportions stated above."
Timeline: How the case came to be
In May 2011, WP won the five-member Aljunied GRC in that year's General Election and retained its single seat of Hougang – this was the first time an opposition party had won a GRC.
WP formed the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council, and FM Solutions and Services (FMSS) was set up and hired as the town council's managing agent.
After WP won the single seat of Punggol East in a by-election in 2013, it folded it into its existing town council and the entity was renamed the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC).
Months later, People's Action Party MPs questioned WP during a parliamentary debate about a possible conflict of interest. This was because AHPETC's managing agent, FMSS, was owned by WP supporters.
In February 2015, the Auditor-General's Office audited AHPETC and found lapses in governance and compliance, including the fact that FMSS owner, the late Danny Loh, was the secretary of the town council, with the power to co-sign cheques, while his wife, How Weng Fan, was the general manager of AHPETC.
WP lost Punggol East to the PAP in the September 2015 General Election, and the town council was named AHTC again.
In November 2015, the Court of Appeal ordered AHTC to appoint accountants to fix lapses found by the Auditor-General's Office.
Accounting firm KPMG ran an audit and found what it termed "improper payments" worth over S$33.7 million paid to FMSS and its subsidiary FM Solutions and Integrated Services (FMSI).
In February 2017, AHTC appointed an independent panel to review the findings of the report.
On behalf of AHTC, the independent panel filed a civil suit against the three WP MPs - Ms Sylvia Lim, Mr Low Thia Khiang and Mr Pritam Singh - to claim the money back.
Shortly after, Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council also filed a separate suit against the three WP leaders, for losses allegedly incurred while WP ran Punggol East constituency.
The closure of the fundraising joint account marks the conclusion of the two lawsuits mounted in 2017.
The town councils had sued eight defendants in separate civil suits: WP leaders Mr Singh, Mr Low Thia Khiang and Ms Sylvia Lim; former town councillors Mr Chua Zhi Hon and Mr Kenneth Foo; FMSS and its owners Ms How Weng Fan and her late husband Mr Danny Loh.
In a nutshell, the case revolved around the alleged misuse of town council funds over the appointments of "conflicted" parties Ms How and Mr Loh, who held dual roles in both FMSS and the WP-held AHTC (and at one point AHPETC when WP won the Punggol East constituency).
Basing their cases on audit reports that used a figure of S$33.7 million in alleged misused funds, the town councils launched civil suits against the eight defendants in an attempt to find them liable for damages.
The defendants were found liable by the trial judge for multiple breaches of fiduciary duty, skill and care for various managing agent contracts, payments and awarding of contracts to vendors.
But the Court of Appeal later overturned most of these liable findings, rejecting that the defendants were fiduciaries or owed equitable duties, on which most of the findings rested.
