Punggol East Town Council to start operations from Dec 22
SINGAPORE — Although it takes over the Punggol East Town Council tomorrow (Dec 1), the Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council (PRPTC) will commence operations there only from Dec 22 because renovation and retrofitting works have to be done first.
PRPTC chairman Zainal Sapari said residents have been informed of this.
The handover comes after the Workers’ Party lost the single seat ward to the People’s Action Party (PAP) in the elections in September. The PAP’s Charles Chong, who started his meet-the-people sessions in the constituency the same month, earlier said he will request for the Ministry of National Development (MND) to restore its disbursement of grants after getting a “clean set of accounts”.
The ministry has withheld two years of government grants, totaling about S$14 million, from the former Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC), after major lapses in compliance and governance were uncovered. Last Friday, the Court of Appeal ordered AHPETC to make all outstanding transfers to its sinking fund within three months, which the town council said it will work with the MND on to comply with.
In response to queries, an MND spokesperson said they are studying their next course of action, including the conditions required before disbursing the withheld grants to Punggol East Town Council.
To facilitate the handover, the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) has engaged an external auditor to audit Punggol East’s accounts from April 1.
AHTC chairman Pritam Singh told TODAY that the audit will commence shortly as it will cover accounts until Nov 30.
“Handover proceeding as planned,” said Mr Singh in an SMS reply.
Separately, former WP Punggol East MP Lee Li Lian, in a Facebook post tonight (30 Nov), thanked former Punggol east town council staff for their diligence and hard work, and wished the new management agent staff "all the very best".
"AHPETC will be history," said Ms Lee. "I was there (last Saturday) to pack the last bit of my stuff from my cubicle. Lots of pictures, lots of stuff, lots of memories".
