THE revelation of the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council's (AHPETC) lapses in accounting and administration ("Audit of WP-run town council flags major lapses"; Feb 10) and the subsequent parliamentary debate over the past week have raised two fundamental issues pertaining to the running of town councils - non-compliance with procurement principles and weaknesses in corporate governance.
The Workers' Party has defended its decision to hire FM Solutions and Services (FMSS) by saying that the selection of the managing agent (MA) was done through open tender, which saw only FMSS come forward to bid.
However, such an argument to justify that it had acted above board was flawed, as the evaluation board missed out one cardinal principle of procurement - value for money.
The AHPETC would have noted the exorbitant fee charged by FMSS had it compared the MA rates across the various town councils in Singapore.
In hindsight, AHPETC should also have sought other alternatives, such as the direct hiring of the management staff to run its town council, instead of trying to play victim to the existing political environment.
There are cases where town councils take on staff from the companies they hire as town executives to facilitate day-to-day operations. More legislative safeguards may be instituted to isolate double-hatting individuals from making decisions with conflicts of interest ("Episode shows need for stronger laws: Heng"; Sunday).
This can prevent them from using their positions in the town councils to exercise undue influence over the decision-makers to further their business interests in the town councils.
There is a need to strictly uphold procurement principles and corporate governance to ensure greater accountability and transparency in the running of town councils.
Lim Ming Yen
The Workers' Party has defended its decision to hire FM Solutions and Services (FMSS) by saying that the selection of the managing agent (MA) was done through open tender, which saw only FMSS come forward to bid.
However, such an argument to justify that it had acted above board was flawed, as the evaluation board missed out one cardinal principle of procurement - value for money.
The AHPETC would have noted the exorbitant fee charged by FMSS had it compared the MA rates across the various town councils in Singapore.
In hindsight, AHPETC should also have sought other alternatives, such as the direct hiring of the management staff to run its town council, instead of trying to play victim to the existing political environment.
There are cases where town councils take on staff from the companies they hire as town executives to facilitate day-to-day operations. More legislative safeguards may be instituted to isolate double-hatting individuals from making decisions with conflicts of interest ("Episode shows need for stronger laws: Heng"; Sunday).
This can prevent them from using their positions in the town councils to exercise undue influence over the decision-makers to further their business interests in the town councils.
There is a need to strictly uphold procurement principles and corporate governance to ensure greater accountability and transparency in the running of town councils.
Lim Ming Yen
