How AIM-AHPETC Affects Your Life and Your Town Council

Preamble: This article aims to provide a True and Fair View of the entire episode of AIM-AHPETC issues. It might take 10 minutes of your valuable time. This article aims to present the facts and figures before you for your analysis and judgement.

First Thing First - Simi is a Town Council?

A Town is an area comprising any constituency. A Town Council’s role is primarily estate management such as cleaning services of the common areas, building maintenance, horticultural landscaping, electrical and mechanical maintenance and estate improvement works including provision of amenities such as covered walkways, playgrounds

The Purported Reason behind Setting up Town Council 

Prior to the establishment of Town Councils, the common areas of HDB estates were maintained by HDB, in a centralized, apolitical (politically neutral) system. The establishment of Town Councils shifted the responsibility for estate management from HDB to the Town Councils. It was deemed that although the HDB was successful in providing public housing to the local population, the standardised rules that the board had set for all housing estates made HDB towns monotonous in appearance and that HDB was slow in making decisions to address problems faced by residents and in responding to their complaints. So the decision to handover the baton of the dreary daily affairs of running to the Town Council, freeing up precious time and resources for HDB to focus on building more public housing.

The First Town Councils - Taking Over from HDB

The 1st town councils were established in September 1986, Ang Mo Kio West, Ang Mo Kio East and Ang Mo Kio South in Ang Mo Kio new town, spearheaded by Mr Chandra Das former MP and one of the 3 director of AIM Pte Ltd.

Who are the members of the Town Council?

The elected members of parliament of that town will be members of the Town Council. The Chairman will be appointed from those elected members. The Chairman can then appoint other members to the town council, numbering not less than 6 and not more than 30. At least 2/3 of the appointed members must be residents of the Town, to ensure that the interests of residents are represented.

Powers of a Town Council

To fulfill its functions, the Town Council is conferred with certain powers through the Town Councils Act where the Town Council has the powers to:

• with the prior written consent of the Board, maintain facilities on or make improvements to the common property of the residential and commercial property for the benefit of residents of housing estates of the Board within the Town;
• with the approval of the Minister and the consent of the owner of the property on which the facilities are or to be erected, installed or planted, erect, install, plant, repair and maintain facilities within the Town.
• acquire and hold property of any description if, in the opinion of the Town Council, the property is necessary for the accommodation of the Town Council or for the performance of any purpose which the Town Council is permitted by this Act.
• impose charges for such use of any part of the common property as the Minister may prescribe, or for the use of any facility or service provided, or for any improvements to the common property made, by the Town Council as it considers necessary.
• appoint agents to carry out its functions under this Act or any other Act;
• accept gifts and donations whether of property or otherwise and whether subject to any special trust or not; and

FACT 2: How are Town Councils Funded?

Town Councils are primarily funded by:

• Conservancy and Service Charges levied upon every flat in any residential or commercial property, and every stall in any market or food centre of the HDB within the town, at such rates determined by the Town Council.
• Government Grants – grants are disbursed through the Ministry of National Development (MND), to the grassroots organisations. The 12 members committee which oversees the approval of funds is Community Improvement Projects Committee (CIPC) are overwhelming make up by PAP members with no opposition members representation 

How are the funds used 

• To maintain sinking funds to enable the carrying out of cyclical repair works 
• To invest surplus funds in trustee stocks

8 PAP Town Council Lose S$16,000,000 in Risky Financial Products

IN 2008, eight town councils (TC) run by the People's Action Party lose $16 million of sinking funds invested in troubled structured products. The lion's share of $12 million is from Holland-Bukit Panjang ($8 million) and Pasir Ris-Punggol ($4 million). Dr Teo Ho Pin, then chairman of the Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council as well as coordinating chairman for the 14 PAP town councils, disclosed this in response to Senior Minister of State (National Development) Grace Fu queries if  whether a stricter cap on risky investments was needed.

Mr Teo further shared that the Town councils has accumulated over $2 billion of Sinking funds from the service and conservancy charges we paid monthly ! This amount is then invested within the approved investment set by by Ministry of National Development.

Over S$2 billion of Sinking Funds  - Why Collect So Much from Us ? 

How are Town Councils Held Accountable?

In the case of non-payment of service and conservancy charges, the Town Councils are also empowered to recover such debts by:

• Recovering the arrears due in a Small Claims Tribunal;
• Applying to Court for a writ of seizure and sale of  property belonging to the owner; and
• Imposing a charge and, upon expiry of the notice of intention to sell, dispose of the flat.

Town Councils are also required to keep proper accounts, which must be audited annually. Each year, the Town Council will also display for public inspection estimates of its revenue and expenditure and a list of works proposed to be undertaken for the next financial year. Audited reports must be submitted to the Ministry for National Development for tabling to parliament. The Ministry will then make public its concerns and observations for the benefit of the residents, and publish the Town Council Management Report so residents can keep track of the performance of their Town Council.

Mr Low Speaking in Teo Chew On AIM-AHPETC

FACT 3: WHO MANAGES MOST OF PAP TOWN COUNCILS 

Currently, majority of PAP Town Councils are managed by a Company called EM Services Pte Ltd which was established in 1988 shortly after the Town Council Act was established.

The following Town Councils are managed by EM Services Ptd Ltd 

• East Coast
• Holland-Bukit Panjang
• Moulmein-Kallang
• Nee Soon
• Pasir Ris-Punggol
• Potong Pasir
• Sembawang
• Tanjong Pagar
• West Coast Town Councils

Who is EM Services Pte Ltd?  

EM Services is 75% owned by HDB and the Chairman of EM Services is Mr Matthias Yao, a 20 years PAP veteran who was MP for MacPherson until 2011, Mr Yao was also a  former Senior Minister of State at the Prime Minister's Office and Mayor of the South East District of Singapore. Interestingly, Mr Yao also sits on the Board of Directors of HDB. 

HDB = EM Services 

Effectively, it meant that HDB through EM Services, managed the majority of PAP Town Councils in Singapore. 

Political Round Tripping or AIM  

That being the case, it goes against the original intend of setting up the Town Council Act since effectively most Town Councils are still managed by HDB. 

Burning Questions - So Why Need EM Services

Residents Paid DOUBLE (Pay And Pay) AGAIN ? 

• Why does PAP or HDB needs to set up a separate Company under the same structure as AIM ran by a former veteran MP?
• Why does HDB need to set up EM Services in the 1st place and not simply manage the Town Council directly. Duplicating the infrastructure simply meant that residents have to pay higher fees due to the higher overheads and additional business entity.

AIM and the S$25 million Dollar Question? Why ? 

People's Action Party (PAP) town councils had spent over $25 million dollars of residents' money to build a Management System to track payment and maintenance of town councils. The system was build by National Computer System (NCS). In 2010, a strange tender was call to sell the Town Council Management Software and lease it back, there was only 1 bidder, Action Information Management (AIM), a $2 paid up capital shell company whose three directors are former PAP MPs. 

Build by NCS, Sold to AIM whom engaged NCS to maintain the System 

Political Round Tripping 2 ?

1. The PAP Town Council Application Software was built by National Computer Systems (NCS) for a princely sum of over $25 million of residents' money. 
2. PAP has sold the rights of the entire computer software managing the Town councils to AIM Pte Ltd for a measly S$140,000 despite spending over $25 million dollars of residents' money building the system
3. After securing the deal, AIM signed an agreement with PAP town councils whom will pay monthly retainer fees to AIM 
4. AIM then engaged NCS to maintain the system on a retainer basis 

Selling $25 million worth of investment for $140,000 

AIM was a $2 paid up capital company who has No Full Time Staff (except for 3 directors who are also ex-PAP MPs and 2 Part timer), No Website, No Hardware, No Software, AIM doesn't even have its own mailing address (its address was the same as the PAP’s headquarters’ in Bedok), Yet it was deemed qualified to meet the stringent criteria set by the 14 PAP town councils to be worthy of being awarded the contract to purchase the computer system for just $140,000 (where the $140,000 came from was never explained) which cost almost S$25 million, funded by monthly S&CC collections from residents.

When queried in Parliament on this Matter in 13 May 2013. Minister Khaw retorted ..I accept the point that, in general, the fact that a company had just $2 of paid-up capital must raise a flag... But in this case, AIM is not any ordinary $2 company. It was set up by the PAP ....That is the difference between AIM and any other “$2 company” ....

So what Value does AIM Bring to the Table ?

Using Our Money to Fund Political Party ?

In the same Parliamentary Session, Dr Teo Ho Pin also confirmed that this third party, AIM, is “fully-owned” by the PAP. In other words, the Town Councils saw it fit to sell away their ownership of the systems, developed with public funds, to a political party.

AIM Pulling the Plug on WP's Aljunied GRC Town Council 

When WP won Aljunied GRC in 2011, AIM issued a notice of termination of the systems, effective 1 Aug 2011.  After 31 Aug, the former system was no longer operational, pulling the plug on WP's access to vital data from the Town Council software, giving WP only 1 month to migrate the data and built an entire new software concurrently.With the removal of the system, all the data had to be to manually extract, exported and manually key into the newly built software. 

Because of AIM - Residents Paid DOUBLE (Pay And Pay)

The Town Council System was funded by money from the residents. When PAP-AIM pulled the Plug, a new system needs to be developed and thus residents needlessly paid Twice for the same services because of PAP-AIM.

WP's Appointment of FMSS as Managing Agent

FM Solutions & Services Pte Ltd (FMSS) was the sole bidder for WP's tender for Adjunied GRC maintenance services. One of the reasons given by WP for engaging its managing agent, FMSS in the first place was that WP had problems finding a managing agent to run AHPETC.

In the words of WP Chief Low Thia Khiang in parliament, “Nobody wants to work for me…That is the problem, Prime Minister!”

Is the reason valid?

Of course. There are a total of 16 town councils in Singapore, with 15 run by the People’s Action Party (PAP) and one by the WP. Imagine if you are a managing agent in Singapore – would you want to incur the wrath of a big client by working with its competitor?

WP's Failing - Failure to Disclose 

FMSS is majority-owned by husband-and-wife team, Mr Danny Loh and Ms How Weng Fan. They were both employed by AHPETC with Mr Loh been secretary and Ms How been deputy secretary and general manager of the town council. The couple are long-time WP supporters, and were assentor and proposer to the WP candidates who contested Ang Mo Kio GRC in the 2006 General Election.

It is not uncommon for party supporters or members to be hired by town councils or to be closely involved with the managing agents appointed by town councils. Mr Ho Thian Poh, who is secretary of the People's Action Party-run Jurong Town Council, is a member of the party. He is also the managing director of the town council's managing agent, Esmaco Township Management.

AGO's Finding 

In the Auditor-General's Office Report, it commented AHPETC did not properly disclose or manage potential conflicts of interest, leading to situations where the same individual issued an invoice for work done by FMSS. AHPETC acknowledged and accepts the AGO report and make the recommended changes to strengthen the processes.

Final Outcome: AHPETC in the Pink of Health

On 30th Aug 2015, AHPETC reports a surplus for FY2014/15, taking into account the govt grant of $7.2m, withheld by the MND (All town councils - including PAP Town councils- are in the red before receiving govt grants)

Workers' Party MP Png Eng Huat said he would leave it to the residents to decide if there had been an improvement in AHPETC and it's financial position from previous years.WP chairman Sylvia Lim said, "Looking at the recent events AHPETC has been targeted for, we can see the huge deviation from the original purpose of town councils," adding that 'one can only assume they (MND) are in overdrive to try to find something before polling day'. She said the report would give everyone 'updated audited information' about the town council. 

Despite the release of the report, Lim said she expected the issue to be raised during the upcoming election campaign, and the WP was 'always prepared to discuss and engage it'. Referring to similar lapses in People's Association Town Council  which had been flagged by the Auditor-General’s Office, Ms  Lim said "I think there is a desire, certainly in many Singaporeans, that we will have to talk about the broader national issues and where our country is going... that's the purpose of elections" 

Comparing AIM to FMSS 

FMSS is a registered Government Supplier under the Supply Head of EPU/SER/30 which is for the supply of Management Services such as real estate management, management of car parks, etc. FMSS Financial Category is S8 which requires a Net Tangible Asset of $250,000 and an annual turnover of $5,000,000. FMSS also claim to have a team of more than 130 staff with individually proven track record bonded together to deliver a comprehensive service covering Property Maintenance and Management, Accounting and Finance, Contracts Administration, Lifts Maintenance, Information Technology, Public Relations and Project Management.


AIM had a paid-up capital of S$2. It didn’t have its own mailing address (its address was the same as the PAP’s headquarters’ in Bedok), it has No office, No website, No Full time staff (except for 3 directors who are also ex-PAP MPs and 2 Part timer), No hardware, No developers. It didn’t seemed to have engaged in any businesses since its inception, and it also didn’t seem to have any experience in managing town councils or the running of any IT systems.

Prime Minister Office Ordered  MND to Review AIM Transaction 

In a strongly-worded response in Parliament, WP's Chairman Ms Sylvia Lim questioned numerous aspects of the AIM deal, including the terms of the tender, the nature of AIM and the one-month termination clause in the event the town council changed hands

Due to issues flagged up, Prime Minister Lee subsequently tasked Ministry of National Development (MND) to review this transaction fully, and satisfy itself that public funds were safeguarded and NO residents’ interests were not compromised in a deal between People's Action Party (PAP) town councils and the party-owned company, Action Information Management (AIM).

SO WHAT IS THE REAL PURPOSE OF TOWN COUNCIL SYSTEM?

PAP's View: 

There are two main reasons for setting up the town council system, as stated by Minister for National Development, Mr Khaw Boon Wan in 2013:

1. Town Councils were set up to give authority and responsibility to elected Members of Parliament (MPs) to take charge of their constituents’ estate and to allow each Town to develop its own distinctive character under the MPs’ leadership.
2. Town Councils, so set up, made MPs accountable to their voters for the running of the estate, as these voters can take the MPs’ performance into account when they next go to the polls.

WP's View: 

Ms Sylvia Lim, Chairman of Workers' Party in response to MND's claim of Gross Profiteering (make or seek to make an excessive or unfair profit, especially illegally) by former AHPETC's agents FMSS profits in 2013. It is unfortunate that the political environment has put non-PAP town councils at a financial disadvantage due to the lack of competitive bidders. Your Ministry ought to recognise the existence of an imbalanced system and take into consideration the political reality of the situation

NMP's View 

Town Councils are inherently political was evident from the outset, and it would be naive to think otherwise. While the main intent of the TC framework was to provide for the decentralisation of the control, management, maintenance and improvement of Housing and Development Board (HDB) estates, the political consequences were even more significant. SMU Associate Professor of Law and Nominated MP Eugene  Tan

MND's View

Life is More Complicated than Black and White. You learn to live better with ambivalence, stress and the tensions of sometimes morally difficult situations at a personal level, even though at a professional level you are supposed to be firm, decisive and clear in direction. Town Councils, in the words of Ministry of National Development Permanent Secretary Benny Lim, “were set up for, and fulfil a political purpose”.

Our View ? Moral Compass & Social Injustice 

Dear all, this is a hotly debated issue which affects all of us. It tormented us by pulling our heart and our head in separate direction ...

• The head says ... hmm.. it smell of gutter politics and political bullying by a dominant Party
• The heart says ... it can't be ... the ruling party promotes clean politics and this cannot be true even with all the facts presented ...

Now....Let us take a moment and collect our thoughts together...

Let us picture this.....After a long day's work ... all we wanted is to go home, have a good rest and spend time with our families and loved ones .... but to our horror our domestic helper has left and there are tonnes of rubbish to be cleared..clothes to be iron... dishes to be washed...

For many, we simply cannot imagine living without a maid ... Now Multiple this situation by 206,075 people... this is the magnitude of the task they have because of the Town Council Act. Because of all the mainstream media lop-sided reports, Workers' Party has left with no choice but to Self-Managed with effect from July 2015 after the 3 years contract with FMSS concluded last month.

Many of us relied on domestic helpers not because we are lazy, but simply we want to spent quality time with our loved ones...Workers' Party MPs are not IRON MAN.... they also human beings just like everyone of us.... they also have family they longed to go back to.....

Social Injustice - Numbers Don't Lie 

As reported by Theonlinecitizen.com,  after the Workers' Party took over, the newly merged Aljunied-Hougang Town Council had the grant cut (from $26,688,038 to $7,261,239). In other words, after the Workers' Party took over Aljunied GRC, the town council began receiving even less government grants, despite having one extra SMC (Hougang) to run. Link to Statement > Click Here

Unsurprisingly, Aljunied Town Council's annual report for FY 09/10 remains missing. The National Library claims never to have received it, yet the internet archive (or Wayback Machine) has a broken link to the FY 09/10 annual report.

Care and Compassion 

For the past 33 years since 1982, Mr Low Thia Khiang has served WP with his heart and his soul .. during this period, he and his colleagues has toiled and done their utmost best to be there for the residents... he attended every single funeral wakes..some as late as 1.00am in the morning.

Below is a photo taken by Photographer Lim Weixiang who was shooting a WP outreach session in Hougang constituency on Wednesday morning (2nd Sept 2015) for social news site : www.mothership.sg. In his own words:  "While following Mr Low and the other MPs in Hougang, Mr Low spotted this elderly lady pushed by her daughter in a wheelchair. He went up to her and greeted her in Teochew, but what moved me was his hands — his fingers touching hers — so genuine that it could not have been that he was doing it for the camera. I used a longer lens for this shot as I wanted to isolate them from the background."

Care and Compassion comes from the heart...... Mr Low cares and WP is a responsible Opposition Party that aims to be the voice for each and everyone of us.


In 4 days time... it will be upon us to decide... do we close our rank and support him and his party and send in more support into Parliament to help him or do we turn our back on him ..

What's the Stake for All of Us?

• For Workers' Party - Mr Low and his team lost their seats and go home to spent time with their loved ones
• For Us - We lose our only credible and responsible Voice in the Parliament and an able leader like Mr Low. 
• Can we really afford an "Own self Checked Own self " Government ? 

All these Views doesn't Matter.. Whats Really Matters is YOUR View and Your Action come September 11...

This is not a be all and end all article, to reiterate, it aims to present TRUE FACTUAL Accounts presented for your analysis and judgement. Information are extracted from public domain information including mnd.gov.sg; aphetc.sg, theonlinecitizen.com and public archive. Please feel free to provide your perspective and comments for the learning and education of all electorates. As Voters we have the responsibility to vote wisely and carefully for the future of our nation and for our children. Thank you once again

if you find this article helpful and useful...please share this with the rest of your friends and family..

Next Read >> The Battle of the Red Cliffs Singapore - WP Vs PAP

Every vote counts.. Our future is at state thank you :)