Over the last few days, people have been discussing about AHPETC and PETC deficits. So what is this about? Simply, AHPETC has suffered deficits on its 1st 3 years of operation, which is perfectly normal as newly setup entities typically run into deficits due to lack of experience. Some of the PAP TC also suffered deficits in its early days.
However, PAP, instead of focusing on other more pressing issues, decided to make a mountain out of a mole and keep harping on why AHPETC incurred deficits over the last 2 years, to the extent of getting AGC to do a full scope audit, debating it the parliament and going to the courts. MND even go to the extent of withholding the grants for the FY14/15 from AHPETC.
The above issue extended in August 2015, before the election, when Teo Chee Hean claimed that Punggol East (PE), which was taken out from the Pasir Ris-Punggol town council, was in surplus before handing over to WP in May 2013 and questioned WP on how did the huge surplus turn into deficits within a year.
On 24 August 2015, WP submitted the FY14/15 accounts which clearly indicated that AHPETC would be in a net surplus position if the grants withheld by MND were to be released. However, instead of stopping here, PAP continued to harass WP over the losses incurred in the FY13 and FY14. On 28 August 2015, Charles Chong, the PAP candidate for PE, goes further to claim that PE had 1 million surpluses before handing over to WP and seriously challenged WP on their capability to run a town council.
In response to these accusations, LTK had announced during the rally held on 5 September 2015 that PETC had accumulated deficit loss of $280k instead of the $1 million surplus claimed by PAP before the handover on 1 May 2013.
Zainal Sapari, a PAP MP, responded by the next morning that PETC should be in surplus if one considered the CIPC grant receivables of $300k, supported by a page in the Pasir Ris-Punggol town council accounts. However, the receivables, has actually been accounted for in arriving at the net deficit loss of $280k and the deficits would have been $580k without this CIPC grant. In fact, this CIPC grant appears to remain as outstanding as of 31 March 2015, almost two years after the handover.
On the other hand, TCH tried to draw people attention away from his previous claims that PETC has a surplus and announced that $22.5m of cash has been transferred to AHPETC from PETC. It is amazing that TCH, being a deputy prime minister, appears not to know that this $22.5m relates to the Sinking fund and indirectly implied that WP has lost this $22.5m.
So what are sinking funds? Sinking funds are basically funds set aside yearly and can only be used for major repairs. Sinking funds are not to be used in the town council day to day running. With this in mind, TCH should know every well that the $22.5m has nothing to do with the deficits incurred by PETC under his charge (TCH is the highest ranking MP of Pasir Ris-Punggol town council).
On a separate note, the only time which sinking funds are lost is when a few of the PAP town councils invested in the Lehman Brothers Bonds and lost more than 10m. Surprisingly, none was held responsible for these losses.
Back to this CIPC grant which is unpaid after almost two years. CIPC funds are disbursed through the Citizens’ Consultative Committees (CCCs) for town improvement projects and have to be approved by the members of the CCC, which are either PAP MP or PAP candidates. Thus, it is not surprising to note that opposition TC was given any CIPC for their town improvement projects. Without this CIPC grant, most of the PAP TC would be in deficits.
Some may argue that PAP TC would not have undertaken these town improvement projects with the CIPC grants and would therefore not have deficits. However, it would be fair to state that AHPETC would also need to undertake certain improvements projects without the grants, albeit of small scale. In fact, even by undertaking certain town improvement projects, AHPETC is still able to achieve net surplus by FY15.
It would be clear from the above episode on opposition capabilities and also standards of PAP candidates. As a resident and Singaporean, I would rather PAP rest this issue which had their attention for the past 2 years and focus on more important matters to improve the lives of Singaporean.
