Workers' Party chairwoman Sylvia Lim, who is also AHPETC's chairwoman, made the following points in Parliament in a 35-minute speech on Feb. 12, 2015.

She provided her share of her party's clarifications of the lapses found by the Auditor-General's Office (AGO) in a year-long audit.

Here are four rebuttal points that she made:

1. AHPETC has nothing to hide

Lim said the town council never hid the fact that its senior officers were also owners of its managing agent, FM Solutions and Services (FMSS), but had always acknowledged these links.

Her justification is that for a small company like FMSS, it is unavoidable for its directors to hold key positions in the town council they manage, a point that was also made by WP chief Low Thia Khiang.

She also said the AHPETC has put in place measures to ensure transactions involving FMSS are subject to greater scrutiny.

This was after one major lapse discovered was the town council's failure to manage conflicts of interest in $25.9 million worth of transactions with FMSS and FM Solutions and Integrated Services (FMSI), which provides rescue and maintenance services.

The town council's senior officers are secretary Danny Loh Chong Meng, general manager How Weng Fan and deputy general managers Yeo Soon Fei and Johnson Lieow Chong Sern.

They are the owners of FMSS. Loh is the sole owner of FMSI.

2. Managing agent has limited powers

Lim said media reports over the past few days since the release of the AGO findings had created "misimpressions... that the town council secretary and its general manager... are freely being given contract without tender and paying themselves handsomely without accountability."

However, the fact is that the managing agent did not have powers to award tenders or evaluate those it participated in.

Instead, a committee of the party's MPs and appointed councillors made the decisions.

3. It is the MPs responsibility to vet and approve payments

Lim also addressed the AGO's criticism of the town council not having checks on payments made to FMSS and FMSI.

The AGO had highlighted 84 invoices, worth $6.6 million, that Loh and How had issued as senior officers of FMSS and FMSI.

The duo then approved or signed cheques for some of these invoices as AHPETC officers.

Lim said invoices for $6.4 million were monthly payments for managing agent and lift services, based on rates agreed to in contracts.

She said cheques made to FMSS also had to be co-signed by her or either of AHPETC's vice-chairman Png Eng Huat and Pritam Singh, since Sept. 8, 2011.

4. Overcharged fees were reimbursed back to town coucil

On AHPETC being overcharged by FMSS for lift services in 2012, Lim said she was responsible for the error. AHPETC had not called a tender for the contract and had set up a committee to assess the fee proposed by FMSS, as a result of time constraints.

FMSS had promised to charge rates similar to those of former contractors but it quoted a fee 30 percent higher.

Lim said FMSS had "used the wrong unit multiplier" to compute prices and would bear responsibility: "There was absolutely no intention on the part of the committee or the contractor to approve higher payment rates... I bear responsibility as I was chair of the evaluation committee."

About $122,000 has been returned to the town council.

She also said AHPETC has since introduced measures to better manage the conflicts of interest that could arise from its dealings with FMSS and FMSI.

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