The following is an email query sent to Dr Ong Seh Hong, MP for Marine Parade GRC, regarding the$60,000 loan he took from Ren Ci Hospital. The email was sent on Friday, 17 April 2009. TOC is awaiting his reply.
Dear Dr Ong,
I am writing this email query on behalf of The Online Citizen (www.theonlinecitizen.com).
We are aware of the letter you wrote to Channelnewsasia providing some background to your $60,000 loan from Ren Ci Hospital. We would like to ask you several follow-up questions relating to the loan.
Given the charitable nature of the organization and concerns members of the public might have regarding the appropriateness of this transaction, we hope you will use this as an opportunity to clarify.
The questions are:
1) Was the loan declared and publicly disclosed in Ren Ci’s accounts?
2) Why did you choose to take the loan from Ren Ci instead of the banks?
3) Did you pay interest on the loan, and if so, was the interest rate comparable to then-prevailing market rates?
4) What was the timeline for repayment of the loan and did you comply with it?
5) When did you complete repayment of the loan?
6) Did you declare this loan to the People’s Action Party selection committee?
I look forward to your speedy reply. As these questions are of interest to my readers and the public at large, this set of queries will be published on The Online Citizen at the same time it is sent to you. We hope to receive a response from you by the end of this working day. Your response will be published as a separate article.
Regards,
Choo Zheng Xi
Editor-in-Chief
The Online Citizen
