By Hetty Musfirah, Channel NewsAsia, 5 Jan 2013
AIM reiterates, town council served notice first
TODAY, 5 Jan 2013
Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Grace Fu said a fundamental point in the discussions on Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) and Action Information Management Pte Ltd (AIM) revolves around the management of the town council.
In a post on her Facebook page, she said town councils were set up to make Members of Parliament (MPs) responsible for the maintenance and cleanliness of their constituencies.
Thus, the government put town councils under the charge of the elected representatives, and linked them directly to the MPs and their political parties.
Ms Fu said when the Worker's Party (WP) contested in Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC), it assured the voters that it could manage the estate well, based on its track record in Hougang.
Ms Fu said when the Worker's Party (WP) contested in Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC), it assured the voters that it could manage the estate well, based on its track record in Hougang.
Ms Fu noted that after WP won the GRC in the 2011 general election, it promptly put its people into the town council and directly appointed its own managing agent.
They were clearly in charge of Aljunied-Hougang TC (AHTC) right after the election, she said.
Ms Fu pointed out that 18 months later, AHTC got a "red band" for its collection of Service and Conservancy Charges (S&CC) in the reports card on town councils.
More than half of its monthly S&CC collection is overdue for three months or longer.
AHTC was also the only town council whose grade for corporate governance was pending its auditor's report.
Ms Fu said AHTC Chairman Sylvia Lim had said the fault is not theirs, but the PAP's, which allegedly terminated the financial systems provided by AIM.
Ms Fu said AHTC Chairman Sylvia Lim had said the fault is not theirs, but the PAP's, which allegedly terminated the financial systems provided by AIM.
She said this is untrue - and that it was WP that served notice to terminate AIM, and later asked for and received two extensions of time, until its own system was ready.
Ms Fu said it is the WP's responsibility to provide services in AHTC, as it did in Hougang Town Council - not the government's or the PAP's.
She added that "taking aim at AIM misses a fundamental point - the management of AHTC".
Ms Fu said a new team may take three or four months to settle in, but believes 18 months are 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?" she asked.
AIM reiterates, town council served notice first
TODAY, 5 Jan 2013
Following two further statements on the issue earlier today, Action Information Management (AIM) has come out to reiterate that it was the Aljunied Hougang Town Council (AHTC) that had initiated the termination of AIM's services.
Earlier today, AHTC's chairman Sylvia Lim disclosed a copy of the termination notice by AIM, dated June 22, 2011.
But AIM said the termination process began with a letter from the town council, sent to AIM, on June 10, 2011, which is already in the public domain.
In the letter, the town council informed AIM that it was developing its own software management system but needed more time to effect the transition, and requested an extension of the lease agreement.
AIM said it was willing to grant the extension to ensure a smooth transition and avoid any disruption to the town council and its residents. To avoid any doubt, AIM issued its own formal notice of termination on June 22, 2011 after seeking legal advice.
A follow up letter was also sent two days later to confirm that it would grant the extension requested by the town council.
AIM said it also readily agreed to a subsequent request for a further extension till Sept 9, 2011.
AIM said the town council also thanked AIM in writing twice for its cooperation and assistance. AIM was also willing to agree to further extensions, if requests had been made.
THE TWO LETTERS
The full text of AHTC's letter, dated June 10, 2011:
"We would like to inform you that Aljunied-Hougang Town Council is in the process of developing a Town Council Management System to support its operations effectively.
"We would like to thank AIM for the assistance rendered to us in preparing the migration of database to the new system.
"The new system is targeted to go live on 1 August 2011. While the new system goes live, we are planning to have the AIMS-TCMS (Financial Module) running concurrently till 31 August 2011, so as to ascertain the reliability of the new system.
"As such, we would like to put up a request to continue to use the AIMS-TCMS till 31 August 2011, for your favourable consideration please."
The full text of AIM's termination notice, dated June 22, 2011:
"We hereby give notice in accordance with Clause 9.3 of the Conditions of the above Contract that, owing to material changes to the membership of the Town Council, we will cease to allow Aljunied Town Council the use of the intellectual property and system functions relating to the developed application software currently used by the Town Council after a period of at least one month from the date of this notice.
"The provision of the developed application software will therefore be terminated with effect from 1 August 2011."
WP wanted to use PAP's IT system: Sylvia Lim
But PAP-owned IT company Aim says it never indicated this
By Andrea Ong & Goh Chin Lian, The Straits Times, 8 Jan 2013
But PAP-owned IT company Aim says it never indicated this
By Andrea Ong & Goh Chin Lian, The Straits Times, 8 Jan 2013
ALJUNIED-HOUGANG Town Council (AHTC) may have written to Action Information Management (Aim) stating plans to develop its own computer management system, but it did so only because it knew the firm was likely to pull the plug on its contract.
If not, the Workers' Party-run town council would have been happy to continue using the software, WP chairman Sylvia Lim told The Straits Times last night.
"If the termination clause was not there, that would definitely be something we would do because it is the smoothest way to transit in," she said, citing a line in the contract that allows Aim to terminate the contract if there are material changes to the town council.
This latest claim by Ms Lim prompted an immediate response from Aim last night. It pointed out that AHTC never told the company that it wanted to continue to use Aim's IT system.
The to-and-fro continued last night over which side initiated the termination, as both parties had produced letters in recent weeks to back up their cases.
Last Saturday, Ms Lim released a letter from Aim dated June 22, 2011, stating it was terminating its contract with AHTC from Aug 1.
But Aim responded by pointing to an earlier letter that it released last week. This letter, dated June10, was from AHTC to Aim, saying that it was developing its own system, and requesting an extension until Aug31, 2011 for the transition.
In her response last night, Ms Lim noted that AHTC's June 10 letter had not talked about termination, as she said there were no legal grounds for it to initiate ending the contract.
Under the terms, she said, the town council can only do so under two conditions - if it feels the contractor is not performing or if the latter goes into liquidation.
"It doesn't allow the town council of its own volition to terminate, so there's legally no way for us to do it anyway," said Ms Lim. She added: "It would be suicidal if we did not actually start to upscale our systems and just wait for the magnanimity of Aim to come and terminate us... I don't think we can explain it to residents."
Responding, Aim chairman S.Chandra Das said: "AHTC never told Aim that it wanted to continue to use (Aim's) IT system."
Referring again to the June 10 letter in which AHTC said it was developing its own system and requested an extension, he said: "This could only mean that AHTC wanted to terminate the lease agreement. Hence, to avoid any doubt, after taking legal advice, Aim sent its own formal notice on 22 June 2011."
Ms Lim also rebutted criticism from Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Grace Fu that WP was blaming its performance in a recent report card on town councils on the People's Action Party (PAP).
She said AHTC had actually done "quite well" in areas like cleanliness and lift breakdowns, but had raised the issue of computer systems because it needed to explain why it did not get a report card score on corporate governance.
In her first statement explaining the delay, she said it was because Aim had terminated the contract and it had to install its own IT systems.
Commenting on its poor or red band for its collection of service and conservancy charges arrears, Ms Lim said that part of the reason had to do with AHTC being new and needing time to find out why residents were not paying. Before, she had identified this as a priority to be fixed.
Last night, she again accused the PAP of evading the question of why the 14 PAP town councils had sold the software rights to Aim.
"Is it responsible of them to sell off a system which was developed with public funds in that manner?" she asked.
Commenting on AHTC's arrears last night, Mr Chandra Das said: "Ms Lim has now admitted that AHTC arrears are high because they were new to Aljunied and wanted to find out why residents could not pay. She also acknowledged that AHTC could do better.
"So the AHTC arrears problem had nothing to do with Aim or the change-over of the IT system."
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