Skip to main content

Auditing in Name, Judicial Management in Action, Money Politics in Distributing Injustice.


[From the HDB upgrading to co-signing cheque payments, the PAP has invented one more Distributive Injustice - an upgraded version of their money politics. MND’s withholding money to opposition town council clearly shows their continued discrimination against citizens once again.]


In the case of Ministry of National Development versus Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPECTC),  MND is applying to appoint an independent accountants/auditors to co-sign cheques for fresh grants from the government.

The job of these accountants would be to oversee government grants given to the town council. The grants would be held in segregated accounts and the accountants would have to co-sign any payments from these accounts that exceed $20,000.
(Straits Times, 5 May 2015)

The PAP government has many schemes for grant and research fund applications. Many small and medium size companies and research organisations have benefitted from these schemes. They apply for the grants and the government disburses the money in part or in full to them.

These new fresh funds will then transfer to the bank accounts of the applicants. 

Does the government impose a co-sign system to safeguard the fresh funds? Whenever the applicant’s CEO or finance director signs a cheque, do they need to seek a second signature from the independent accountants? 

SMEs know too well that their operations and productivity will be affected if there is a required co-signature. They will wonder who is the boss? The government or the SMEs.

The Board of Directors and the management of SMEs are entrusted by shareholders to run the business.  They can be replaced if their performance is not up to standard. Shareholders have the right to remove the directors and the management in a general meeting.  

In the MND vs. AHPETC case, AHPETC was officially elected by voters in 2011 (and 2012). Voters, like the shareholders, can vote the AHPETC management out in the coming election (for companies, in a general meeting or an extra general meeting in case of emergency).

This is why Attorney-General’s Chambers, representing MND, has to create terms like ‘short of fund’, ‘technical insolvent’, to justify the application. When a company’s cheque has to co-sign by an independent accountant or auditor, it is no more a simple auditing purpose anymore. It goes beyond the question of accountability and transparency. For SMEs, it means some kinds of ‘judicial management’ are taking place.   

In business, when a company is in financial trouble or insolvent, judicial management can become a rescue plan to save the company.  The Courts, upon application, can appoint Judicial Managers to temporary run the company.

The PAP government is technically asking some judicial powers to manage the fresh funds from the Courts. They even want to have more powers to examine past accounts.   

They may also be empowered to examine past AHPETC payments and take appropriate action to recover any losses suffered by the town council and its residents.
(Straits Times, 5 May 2015)

Just like the estate upgrading case, the PAP government has failed to respect the wishes of voters. Voters wanted Workers’ Party to run the estates and AHPETC was created by majority of voters in Aljunied, Hougang and Punggol East..


The application has gone too far and it is against the Constitutional right of the voters.

Once again, this is the money politics of the PAP - a continued distributive injustice.  Through judicial management, they want to have a hand in the management of AHPETC. They fail to understand who the real bosses of Singapore are.

distributive injustice.jpg
Now we look at another side of the money politics. The PAP has a long tradition to deny upgrading projects to opposition wards. This outdated model of distributive injustice has consistently rejected by voters in Hougang. So, the PAP think tank needs to have some new ideas to fix the oppositions. The withholding of grants from MND is one such new idea.

This injustice is like when everyone is entitled to receive CPF medisave top-ups, cash bonus, pioneer generation bonus, SG50 baby packet, etc except citizens in AHPETC managed constituencies. Residents in AHPETC do not have the same treatments as other Singaporeans even though they pay taxes accordingly.

The PAP is saying they are withholding these fresh grants/payments as they have outstanding issues with AHPETC.  Do they know it is similar to withholding payments of CPF top-ups, Pioneer Generation packet, SG50 baby packet to citizens in Aljunied, Hougang and Punggol East.

Withholding fresh grants is a discrimination against Singaporeans living in AHPETC estates. When the government top-ups CPF for citizens, giving cash bonus,Pioneer Generation and Baby packets to citizens, do they ask for credit reference, personal character, belief, marital status or race before disbursing the money or gifts to citizens?    

Without the fresh grants, the PAP claims that AHPETC will be ‘short of fund’, ‘running out of money’. Like a local government with no business revenue, one way of solving this cash flow problem is to raise maintenance and conservancy fees. If this is the case, the PAP can then claim AHPETC is not managing the estates well as they have to increase the fees.

Whether it is from judicial management point of view or distributive justice point of view, the PAP government is making use of money politics to intervene the Constitutional rights of the citizens. They are trying to use the legal means to get themselves (indirectly involved through so-called Independent Auditors) in the running of town council.  They certainly do not respect voters who rejected them in 2011/2012.

In fact, the Courts should have thrown out the application if they consider and respect the election results in Aljunied, Hougang and Punggol East.   

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sub-standard PAP and the Singapore education system

I make a 'policy shift' when I hear the debate of right politics, constructive politics and sub-standard opposition. My original aim is to discuss about “Su Dongbo, Zhang Juzheng and Singapore education system”. The discussion will end with a sub-standard PAP, in particular from the assessment of the quality of PAP potential candidates. Another policy shift is to discuss it like a play, a drama and make it more entertainment rather than a sub-standard political discussion. Act 1 Gangster’s demand Imagine a sense in the Hong Kong's gangster movie (or a godfather movie), the gangsters' master is shouting at his poor opponent and demand him to give a price for his wrong act. The poor guy without any resources can only offer his body or his service to work for the master. Back in his own chamber, the master is still not satisfied and continues to shout 'don't play, play, you think you are hero, you think you are tiger, or superstar or acting ...

EBRC objectives: Stop “Out of Aljunied”, Stop SDP Breakthrough and “Negative-Asset” Ministers.

First of all, we have to congratulate the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee for creating more competitions, especially, multi-cornered competitions in the East. When making changes, EBRC aims to achieve 3 goals: To prevent “Out of Aljunied” for Workers’ Party.  This is the most important objective. To prevent Singapore Democratic Party making any breakthrough in the North and Central.   To look for a solution to retire “negative-asset” ministers or reduce PAP damages. From the reported claims from different political parties, we will expect multi-cornered contests not only in single constituencies but also in group representative constituencies. The PAP hopes to have a repeat of 2011 Presidential Election. Then Tony Tan won the Presidency when he got only 35% of the votes, a narrow win.However, a win is still a win. He did in even in the very last minute, after recounts of votes.    How to achieve multi-cornered contests? By i...

Is Prism Project Another Central Planning of the PAP?

There are 3 scenarios under the Prism Project#1 of Institute of Public Policy.  However, it looks more like the central scenario planning of the People’s Action Party. From the instructional menu of Prism Project Primer #2, participants were guided to a situation in 2022 and they have to imagine, within the Primer framework, to come out with 3 possible scenarios in Jun-Aug 2012.  2022. What a coincidence! Not long ago, PM Lee declared that he would like to hold the prime minister post for another 10 years. The other coincidence is the similarity between the 3 scenarios and the candidates of PE2011. How competitive and sustainable are the 3 scenarios to the people of Singapore and to the PAP?   Will the scenarios produce competitive and sustainable Singapore, Singaporeans or the PAP?  Perhaps, as what the Chinese say: planning cannot always catch up with changes.   And planning sometimes turns out the wrong, bad and unexpected results, espec...