The present financial status of the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) is “healthy”, reiterated the Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh in a televised constituency political broadcast last Friday.
Mr Singh, who is contesting in the Aljunied group representation constituency (GRC) again this year, said that AHTC’s latest audited figures have shown that the Town Council has accumulated a “surplus of S$7.9 million”, which is “more than double” of that when the WP town councillors took over from the previous Aljunied Town Council in 2011.
“Since our current term in late 2015, the Town Council has steadily built up its operating fund position,” he said.
Mr Singh also highlighted again that AHTC’s financial statements “were given a clean and unqualified opinion, and the Ministry of National Development also graded AHTC’s corporate governance with a green banding” last year.
Addressing residents, Mr Singh said: “You know that services in your estate are functioning, from cleaning to pest control.”
“Cyclical works to renew the estate have been ongoing such as repainting, rewiring, and the renewal of playgrounds and exercise areas.
“There have also been improvement works such as additional linkways, and there are currently other works in progress which are resuming after the lifting of the COVID-19 restrictions,” he added.
Noting that WP is not directly in charge of managing and improving private property estates — such estates are under the jurisdiction of government agencies and the People’s Association — Mr Singh said that AHTC has nonetheless tried its best “to attend to municipal issues”.
Previously on 30 June, Mr Singh said that AHTC’s financial performance “does not look very different from the other town councils in Singapore”.
“So we’re very proud of that, and I think at this point, it’s only appropriate for me to thank not just residents, who have been an ally in this effort, but also our contractors and the town council staff, who have actually worked very hard over many years.
“We look forward to more challenges, more brighter days ahead for the residents of Aljunied,” he said.
WP nearly lost Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) by a small margin of 1.9 per cent of votes against the People’s Action Party (PAP) in the previous general election in 2015.
The party’s victory by the skin of its teeth in the constituency in 2015 was said to be influenced by PAP’s comments on WP’s management of AHTC in Parliament.
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