Sylvia: FMSS sending letter of demand is old news

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http://www.tremeritus.com/2015/09/01...d-is-old-news/

Sylvia: FMSS sending letter of demand is old news


September 1st, 2015 |
Author: Editorial




WP Chairman Sylvia Lim


Mainstream media reported yesterday (31 Aug) that FMSS had sent a legal
letter of demand to AHPETC over fees owed. FMSS is the former managing agent of
AHPETC. Starting from Jul this year, AHPETC has started managing its own town
council without the need of a managing agent.

The amount of fees owed is said to be $3.5 million, for services between
April and July this year.

At the introduction of its candidates yesterday, WP Chairman Sylvia Lim said
that “this is quite old news because it has been overtaken by events”.

“This letter was received by the Town Council in late July, about one month
after the managing agent contract had expired,” said Ms Lim.

She explained that “all our contractors know that the Town Council, when it
receives claims, it will exercise due diligence to check and verify whether
those claims are accurate and valid.”

She said that “since that time, we have made some further payments to FMSS
but there are some payments that are not being made because the town council
sees those claims as disputed claims”.

“Right now, the parties – both FMSS and ourselves – we have agreed to
following the Managing Agent (MA) agreement, which provides for any disputes
between the parties to be settled by mediation,” she added.

“So this matter is actually set for mediation before the Singapore Mediation
Centre. And the process is supposed to be amicable, and we will go through that
process which is fixed for October. And if for some reason that process does not
yield the agreed result, then the MA agreement further provides for the matter
to be solved by arbitration.”

“There will not be any litigation concerning this case,” she emphasized.

Ms Lim also commented that the money owed will not affect the FY14/15 annual
report.

“It does not impact the figures for FY 14/15, in fact, most of the claims
relate to the current FY, FY 15/16,” she said. “And a substantial portion of
them are actually related to projects. They are actually sinking funds payments,
so that do not impact on the routine funds.”

FMSS was set up after WP won in Aljunied GRC in the 2011 GE as an interim
measure. It replaced CPG Facilities Management as the AHPETC’s managing agent.
This was because CPG, which is staffed by many PAP grassroots members, did not
want to provide services to Aljunied GRC anymore, after the opposition won the
constituency from PAP.

About a year later, AHPETC called for a public tender but none of the
PAP-linked managing agents wanted to have anything to do with AHPETC. Only FMSS
tendered and won the contract.

MND accuses former MA of AHPETC of “grossly
profiteering”

On Saturday (29 Aug), MND which is under Minister Khaw Boon Wan, suddenly
issued a statement on the eve of GE, accusing the managing agent of AHPETC,
FMSS, of “grossly profiteering” off the town council.

When asked about the MND statement yesterday, Ms Lim said that it is not for
the WP to explain what the Ministry meant by “grossly profiteering”.

“I think the MND is the one that came up with this term ‘grossly
profiteering’, so I think they should tell us what is an acceptable level of
profit in their view, and perhaps also tell us how much money has been made by
the Managing Agents managing the PAP Town Councils,” said Ms Lim. “This is just
a statement from them, and I don’t think it’s for us to explain what they
mean.”

According to the annual reports posted by AHPETC, the followings were fees
paid to its managing agent [Link]:

• 2012/13 $5,246,867
• 2013/14 $6,804,459

A TRE reader sent in the following page from an annual report of Tanjong
Pagar TC, which manages about the same town size as AHPETC:



The figures were some 15 years ago when cost of living was very much lower.
Also, there was no competition from any opposition town councils managing a
GRC:

• 1999/00 $6,611,832
• 2000/01 $5,792,710

The TRE reader asked, “What do you think of the $5.8m and $6.6m managing
agent’s fees 15 years ago?”

What do you think?


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