10/08/2018

AHTC lawsuit - A landmark case in the making

Multimillion-dollar civil suits against 3 Workers’ Party MPs go to trial

The suits were brought against three Workers' Party MPs Low Thia Khiang, Sylvia Lim and Pritam Singh as well as others, over alleged improper payments amounting to millions of dollars....

An 'egregious, cavalier misuse of public funds': Town council lawyers rip into Workers' Party leaders
Later in the afternoon, lawyers for the three MPs and AHTC councillors Chua Zhi Hon and Kenneth Foo stressed that at all times, the five were acting honestly and in “good faith”. The five are represented by Tan Rajah & Cheah.​​​​​​​

“Various allegations have been made ... we have our responses to all those,” said lawyer Chelva Retnam Rajah in court. “At the heart of all our actions is the fact that at all times ... They were acting in good faith, acting honestly and for the purposes of the Town Councils Act in all their actions.”

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/workers-party-trial-ahtc-prptc-lawsuits-low-pritam-sylvia-10793984


Three leaders of Singapore’s leading opposition party Workers’ Party will have to defend themselves in court today over  (Oct 5) alleged mishandling of S$33 million in town council funding. The civil suit was lodged by the ruling party PAP-controlled town councils – through a fake “independent panel” filled with government cronies – after the police cleared the opposition MPs of criminal wrongdoings.

It is unknown who is sitting in the “independent panel” appointed by the ruling party dictatorship....thestatestimes

Above are two quotations, one from Channelnewsasia and the other from thestatestimes.

Just reading them prompted me to ask a few questions. One who were the people filing the civil suits against the WP? What were the grounds that gave them the privilege or right to file a civil suit against a state organisation, a legal entity, constituted under a democratic system of govt? The AHTC may be run by the WP, an opposition party, but it is a legally constituted organisation, not a private organisation, not a social organisation or a NGO or a commercial organisation.

As this is allowed in this case, it is going to set a precedent for anyone to sue any govt organisations under the same pretext, especially town councils and more.

The second point that came out from thestatestimes is the ground for defence put up by the defence lawyers, ie 'They were acting in good faith, acting honestly and for the purposes of the Town Councils Act in all their actions.' This defence is against the charge for 'egregious, cavalier misuse of public funds'

If this defence cannot hold, then in future, anyone being charged for the same egregious, cavalier misuse of public funds would also not be able to get away using this defence of acting in good faith, acting honestly and acting legally, as the WP representatives were acting legally too.

If this defence holds, then in future anyone acting in good faith, honestly and legally, could get away with 'egregious and cavalier misuse of public funds'.

The decision and judgement of the court would have far reaching consequences as whatever the court decides, it would become judicial precedents to be quoted in the future. 

I repeat the three points being put before the court.

1. Anyone can sue any legally constituted state organisation, especially town councils...
2. For egregious and cavalier misuse of public funds
3. Acting in good faith, honestly and legally is or is not a ground for defence.

PS. I have not seen the names of the people filing the suit against AHTC. Have they been made public or is this not to be made public, anonymous? 

28 comments:

  1. Politically motivated lawsuit by fascists.

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  2. Brilliant! Well, played PAP...oh sorry, I shouldn't say that. Our courts areimpartial and independent.

    2 opponents now OUT OF THE RACE for the next GE! Wah piang! Even Sun Tzu will call the PAP "uncle". Limpeh kali kong!

    >> 'egregious, cavalier misuse of public funds' <<

    Oh come on now...is there any OTHER WAY to use public funds...aka 'OPM'? 🤣

    Of course not! Ask the "power couple" Najib & Rosmah. 😝 "Excuse me, in your opinion, what is THE BEST way to use public funds?"

    Any fool can see the problem here. "The PAP's theory" is that if you want to stamp out corruption in public office then you have to pay super-high salaries to those executives-in-charge.

    And there is proof: Our highly paid self-sacrificing so Poor Ting One ministers are paid EXORBITANTLY and so THEY DON'T RESORT TO CORRUPTION.

    C'mon, it's like training your dog. "Positive reinforcement".

    Worker's Party: bad doggie. Underpaid. So better retrain these doggies and give them more money, so they can be good doggies.

    PAP: Good doggies. Top pedigree, ELITE breed. 🐩 Got many many certificates of pedigree.
    PAP master-owner is also socially responsible and civic minded. Everytime one of the doggies shits, the PAP master with pick up the dog shit and dispose of it responsibly.

    Got woof-woof? 🐕

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. This politically motivated LEegalised ilLEEgal case will set a PRECEDENCE for the FUTURE.

    The next Government that toppled the PAP would have a fantastic example to take legal actions against the PAP from A to Z, Top to Bottom, ALL-ENCOMPASSING. No stones unturned.

    Well done PAP! Keep up your examples and precedences for others to follow. Keep digging more graves to bury yourselves. Keep storing more ropes to hang yourselves. Keep up your good works, politically motivated or not.

    Three Cheers for PAP and Cronies!

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  5. The Team of "appointed investigators" that delved into AHTC accounts and put up the recommendations to sue the Workers' Party comprises 4 members. One of these 4 is JB Jeyaretnam's younger son, Philip Jeyaretnam. He should have recruse himself. The mere fact that his father was ousted from the WP and subsequently was very bitter about it, is ground enough for Philip to not participate in the politically motivated "investigation". He might have a hidden motive to get even with the Workers' Party on behalf of his demised father? We don't really know. Nobody, except he himself, knows. But there is a doubt to be raised in Court. This benefit of doubt must be given to the accused.

    The Workers' Party, therefore, has another GROUND OF DEFENCE! (Lack of impartiality)


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  6. I say man, the TC liar can shoot his opening address:

    "Egregious,cavalier misuse of public funds"

    Is he referring to the Charles Chong Punggol Gamble of Lehman Bros and Sisters LBGTs scandal??

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  7. "Egregious, cavalier misuse of public funds"

    This opening statement applies to all organisations that misuse and/or abuse public funds.

    There are thousands, if not millions, of cases that can be put on this ingenious bandwagon.

    All Singapore Taxpayers should take not and take up collective legal actions against any person or organisation that misuse/abuse public funds.

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  8. Correction:

    All Singapore Taxpayers should take note and take up collective legal actions against any person or organisation that misuse/abuse public funds. There is BIG MONEY to be made!

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  9. Ya, Ya, Right Motivated.

    Just like the Americans Liars in the Drama "The Good Wife" took up all collective cases based on the enormous compensation at percentage basis and sue them until pants dropped.

    Edwin Tong thinks he Great Liar can proceed to the other side of the fence as a Private Sector Liar and prove you can earn Big Bucks as your now Gaji Buta taxpayers monies.

    Take up the challenge that you can sapoo more in the private sector.

    No crying and whinning to Lau Goose.

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  10. Danny already died of heart attack from all these pressure n harassment. Still sue wife. This is called heartless. Wicked.

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  11. God cares very much for orphans & widows. He who harrassed n make a woman a widow & still harassed a widow is making himself an enemy of God. Repent!

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  12. Correction. In Singapore, especially the handling of public funds, this is the only case of "Egregious,cavalier misuse of public funds". Period.

    So there is no other cases to talk about. At least as far as I know of. I really cannot think of any other cases involving mismanagement of public funds, misuse of public funds, egregious use of public funds.

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  13. Stupidity has no cure!

    The dafts will remain dafts.

    And ostriches will be ostriches.

    Ignorance is bliss or ignorance is no defence?

    And birds of same feathers will flock together.

    And leapords will never change their spots.

    And so on and so forth......

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  14. Rb, Knn that is all I can say lor😰

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  15. How to win A at next GE?

    Hahaha.......

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  16. The 3 WP candidates are toasts. They WILL be found guilty and thus eliminated from the next GE. Bye Bye

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  17. 天机難測 世事多變 大死之後 才有大活

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  18. What about all those cases of misuse of funds involving PA and other bodies found to be less than transparent by auditor general's office? Everything seems to be rather quiet as far as those are concerned and further down the road, without an opposition, under the carpet is where those cases will go and will be forgotten and forgiven.

    This is a political motivated move in the works for a long time. They were just waiting to get rid of these three thorns by their side and they found the opportunity. Whether justified or not, the case is as good as a foregone conclusion, particularly if you are the opposition in Red Dot.

    70% have their wishes granted for an autocracy and we are going to have it.

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  19. The next step, after WP has been demolished, the PAP will reign supreme.

    After that the Lee Dynasty will be as good as proclaimed without being proclaimed.

    Then the Republic of Singapore will be renamed the The Kingdom of Temasek.

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  20. US-China tension increased on Pompeo's visit to China.

    The Trump Administration is using China as a punching to increase votes for the Republicans in the coming US mid-term elections next month.

    Trump has lauched a coordinated effort to attack China on the economic, technological, military, political, diplomatic and cultural fronts simultaneously.

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  21. Doesn't matter who brought the suit. Officially in the court documents, they are probably unknown low-level Ah Kow, Ah Mao, Dog, Cat, Pig or Rat. But we all know who are the real people behind this. At the end of the day, the WP people will be made bankrupt & forfeit their MP positions as well as being barred from next year's GE.

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  22. Unprofessional Professional's Wrongful Definition Led To Wrongful Accusation!

    At the ongoing trial of WP MPs, Singapore KPMG’s CEO Owen Hawkes was summoned as a witness by the government-led prosecution.

    The CEO of KPMG said that he expect the Opposition-held town council employees to work for free in these services.

    The CEO of KPMG admitted that he did not understand the complexity of the project anything beyond the wording in the tender.

    CEO Owen Hawkes also admitted that he did not conduct even a single site survey of any of the project, some worth more than S$8 million each.

    When told that the previous ruling party PAP town councils and all other PAP town councils similarly paid for overtime payment and site inspection labour, the director was stunned and admitted that "the defence lawyer is correct”:

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  23. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  24. @ idiot KPMG accountant via 908,

    "Work for free"? Someone tell this foreign asshole to go fuck himself.

    The PAP keeps on reminding us over and over for the past 30+ years that if you want talent to run the show properly you have to pay BIG BUCKS. These days even $500k is considered "mediocre".

    The cuntry should follow the PAP lead: you want good, then you pay lah!

    If people dun like it, simply refer them to ESM Goh who will take the time to patiently explain to them WHY paying BIG BUCKS is absolutely neccesary to prevent incompetence and corruption.

    ESM Goh, please oblige. Your cuntry needs you. We know you are "good", cos' we pay you BIG BUCKS.

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  25. What's Farking KPMG, Peat Maverick, Price Waterhouse and What's not.

    Arent's they the Auditors for NKF, City Harvest and what's Big Time MMCs who ran into Big Time Scandals of corruption and neoptism???

    Time to jail all these chia liao bee who only favourd their million $$$$ Auditing fees and goes Scott Free when their Principals are convicted in Court without they also been charged for professional misconduct.

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  26. WP should immediately apply to the Court that there is no case to answer, based on the wrongful definition of 'improper payments" as determined by KPMG. In other words, the payments were proper and have been practised for years by PAP Town Councils.

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  27. Till now no one had make any report of dispreacancy on the PAP Town Councils.

    As no one had dig into his Masters Ganglands.

    Wait till one fine day when an Opposition Party took over and worse discrepancies than the WP so called milagined ronged accounting.

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  28. Do not share in the harrassment of a widow made widow by harrassment. Beware. Beware. Beware.

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