Grace Fu embarrasses herself by defending PAP's AIM without doing homework

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Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Grace Fu has commented on the saga surrounding the People's Action Party town councils' sale of their computer software to PAP-owned company Action Information Management (AIM). The issue started when AHTC Chairman Sylvia Lim said that her town council's less-than-stellar performance in the Dec 14 Town Council Management Report was because it had to develop new IT systems within two months after AIM terminated its contract last August.

Here is Ms Fu's post in full:

Why take aim at AIM? - Well, my take on the recent AHTC/AIM issue is that the aim was really to hope that we would forget how this all started. Before we get all excited over this comment, let me explain the background of Town Councils.

We set up TCs to make MPs responsible for the maintenance and cleanliness of their constituencies. People felt that their elected representatives understood local needs better, and should have more say in how their estates are managed. People want to see whether the MPs they elect can take responsibility and run their town well, can deliver on their promises. That is why we put TCs under the charge of the elected representatives, and linked them directly to the MPs and their political parties.

When the Worker's Party (WP) contested in Aljunied GRC, they assured the voters that they could manage the estate well, based on their track record in Hougang. After the WP won, they promptly put their own people into the town council and directly appointed their own managing agent. They were clearly in charge of Aljunied-Hougang TC (AHTC) right after the election.

Now, 18 months later, report cards on the town councils are out. AHTC got a "red band" for its collection of Service and Conservancy Charges (S&CC). More than half of the AHTC's monthly S&CC collectible is overdue for 3 months or longer. AHTC was also the only TC whose grade for corporate governance was pending its auditor's report. How did this happen?

Ms Sylvia Lim, Chairman of the AHTC, says the fault is not theirs, but the PAP's, for allegedly terminating the financial systems provided by AIM. First, this is untrue, because it was WP that served notice to terminate AIM. After that AHTC asked for and received two extensions of time, until their own system was ready. Second, it is WP's responsibility to provide services in AHTC, as it did in Hougang TC. Not the Government's, not the PAP's.

That brings the discussion back to where I started - taking aim at AIM misses a fundamental point - the management of AHTC. No doubt a new team may take three or four months to settle in, but surely 18 months is enough to take over and be responsible for a Town Council? If not, how much longer should the conversion period be? 24, 30 months? Maybe 5 years?

Ms Grace Fu has tried to show the public that WP is disorganised and unable to effectively run AHTC. However, in making her statement, she implies that it is totally the fault of WP, mentioning that it was them that had opted to terminated AIM.


Comparison of her statement with the email from the Director of AIM shows that she clearly has her facts wrong and it was not infact WP who had served the notice to terminate. Is it still WP fault that their report card was not up to standard as Ms Fu implies?

Perhaps Ms Grace Fu should do her homework properly next time in order to avoid such embarrassment.