IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE HC/S of 2017 ) Between ALJUNIED-HOUGANG TOWN COUNCIL (ID Unknown) …Plaintiff And 1. SYLVIA LIM SWEE LIAN (NRIC No. S1727921A) 2. LOW THIA KHIANG (NRIC No. S1177549G) 3. PRITAM SINGH (NRIC No. S7623613E) 4. CHUA ZHI HON (NRIC No. S8535980J) 5. KENNETH FOO SECK GUAN (NRIC No. S7711639G) 6. HOW WENG FAN (NRIC No. S2506328G) 7. HOW WENG FAN (PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE OF DANNY LOH CHONG MENG, DECEASED, IN HIS PERSONAL CAPACITY AND TRADING AS FM SOLUTIONS & INTEGRATED SERVICES) (NRIC No. S2506328G) 8. FM SOLUTIONS & SERVICES PTE LTD (Registration No. 201111590H) …Defendants TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. DRAMATIS PERSONAE .............................................................................. 1 1.1 The Plaintiff: Aljunied-Hougang Town Council ................................................................... 1 1.2 The Defendants: An overview .............................................................................................. 2 1.3 The 1st Defendant: Sylvia Lim ............................................................................................. 3 1.4 The 2nd Defendant: Low Thia Khiang ................................................................................. 3 1.5 The 3rd Defendant: Pritam Singh.......................................................................................... 4 1.6 The 4th and 5th Defendants: Chua Zhi Hon and Kenneth Foo ............................................. 4 1.7 The 6th and 7th Defendants: How Weng Fan and the late Danny Loh Chong Meng ........... 5 1.8 The 8th Defendant: FM Solutions & Services Pte Ltd .......................................................... 6 1.9 Other Parties: CPG Facilities Management Pte Ltd .............................................................. 8 1.10 Limitation on Scope of Claims made by AHTC ................................................................... 9 2. THE DUTIES: TOWN COUNCILLORS AND LOH AND HOW .......... 9 2.1 Elected Members and Appointed Members .......................................................................... 9 2.2 Loh and How ....................................................................................................................... 11 2.3 Tortious Duty of Care and Skill .......................................................................................... 12 3. RELEVANT BACKGROUND FACTS LEADING UP TO PRESENT SUIT ..................................................................................................................... 12 3.1 The Audit by the Auditor-General’s Office ........................................................................ 12 3.2 The Appointment of Independent Accountants and the Accountants’ Review of Past Payments ........................................................................................................................................ 15 3.3 The Appointment of the Independent Panel ........................................................................ 17 4. INSTALLATION OF FMSS AS MANAGING AGENT OF AHTC ..... 19 4.1 Preliminaries ....................................................................................................................... 19 4.2 Precursor to the appointment of FMSS ............................................................................... 19 4.3 The 4 August 2011 Town Council Meeting & the 1st MA Contract .................................. 22 4.4 The 2nd MA Contract ......................................................................................................... 24 i 5. PAYMENT CONTROLS ........................................................................... 24 5.1 The flawed system of making payments to FMSS/FMSI in AHTC arising from the appointment of FMSS as the Managing Agent .............................................................................. 24 5.2 Void/Voidable Payments to FMSS/FMSI ........................................................................... 28 5.3 Improper Payments to FMSS / FMSI .................................................................................. 31 5.4 Payments to Other Third Parties in Breach of TCFR Provisions ........................................ 34 6. BREACH OF CORE FIDUCIARY DUTY .............................................. 37 6.1 Installation of FMSS: Sylvia Lim and Low Thia Khiang ................................................... 37 6.2 Remedies arising from breaches of core fiduciary duties.................................................... 42 6.3 Loh and How’s breach of core fiduciary duty ..................................................................... 45 6.4 Loh and How: Dishonest Assistance ................................................................................... 46 6.5 Remedies for breach of Loh and How’s core fiduciary duties ............................................ 48 6.6 The decision to enter into the FMSS Contracts and/or the FMSI EMSU Contract was ultra vires and void in Public Law .......................................................................................................... 50 7. BREACH OF DUTY OF CARE AND SKILL ......................................... 51 7.1 Sylvia Lim and Low Thia Khiang: Appointment of FMSS ................................................ 51 7.2 Remedies for breach of duty of care and skill ..................................................................... 53 7.3 Sylvia Lim: Improper Payments ......................................................................................... 54 7.4 Remedies for Sylvia Lim’s breach of duty of care and skill ............................................... 55 7.5 The Committee members’ breach of duty of care and skill – engaging LST Architects for 7 projects involving costs in excess of $70,000 without tender ........................................................ 55 7.6 Remedies for Committee members’ breach of duty of care and skill ................................. 58 8. KNOWING RECEIPT: FMSS & FMSI ................................................... 58 8.1 Liability to Account ............................................................................................................ 58 ii STATEMENT OF CLAIM Page 1 STATEMENT OF CLAIM 1. DRAMATIS PERSONAE 1.1 The Plaintiff: Aljunied-Hougang Town Council 1.1.1 The Plaintiff, Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (“AHTC”), is a body corporate with perpetual succession incorporated in Singapore under the Town Councils Act (Cap. 329A) (version in force from 15 August 2005) (the “TCA”). AHTC may sue and be sued in its corporate name under section 5 of the TCA. 1.1.2 AHTC manages Housing Development Board (“HDB”) estates in Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (“GRC”) (which comprises Bedok Reservoir-Punggol, Eunos, Kaki Bukit, Paya Lebar and Serangoon Divisions) and Hougang Single Member Constituency (“SMC”). 1.1.3 Following the General Election on 7 May 2011 (the “2011 General Election”) and pursuant to the Town Councils (Declaration of Towns) Order 2011 (G.N. No. S 263/2011), Aljunied Town Council and Hougang Town Council merged to form AHTC on 27 May 2011, with a handover date of 1 August 2011. 1.1.4 Following the by-election for Punggol East (“PE”) SMC on 26 January 2013 (the “2013 By-Election”) and pursuant to the Town Councils (Declaration of Towns) (Amendment) Order 2013 (G.N. No. S 97/2013) AHTC was reconstituted as Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (“AHPETC”), with effect from 22 February 2013. STATEMENT OF CLAIM Page 2 1.1.5 Following the General Election on 11 September 2015 (the “2015 General Election”) and pursuant to the Town Councils (Declaration of Towns) Order 2015 (G.N. No. S 577/2015), PE SMC became part of Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council (“PRPTC”). AHPETC was reconstituted as AHTC on 1 October 2015, and all properties, rights and liabilities of AHPETC that were related to PE were, as of 1 December 2015, the properties, rights and liabilities of PRPTC. Reference to AHTC herein shall refer to AHTC and/or AHPETC (as the context requires). 1.1.6 AHTC’s members comprise the elected Members of Parliament (“MPs”) (the “Elected Members”) and appointed members (the “Appointed Members”) pursuant to section 8 of the TCA, from whose ranks the Chairman and Vice Chairman are chosen pursuant to section 9 of the TCA. The Elected Members and Appointed Members will be referred to collectively as “Town Councillors”. 1.2 The Defendants: An overview 1.2.1 At the 2011 General Election, the group of candidates from the Workers’ Party (“WP”) elected for the electoral division of Aljunied GRC were the 1st Defendant: Sylvia Lim Swee Lian (“Sylvia Lim”), the 2nd Defendant: Low Thia Khiang, the 3rd Defendant: Pritam Singh, Chen Show Mao, and Muhamad Faisal bin Abdul Manap. Yaw Shin Leong of the WP was elected to the Hougang SMC seat. 1.2.2 Following the by-election for Hougang SMC on 26 May 2012, Png Eng Huat of the WP was elected to the Hougang SMC seat. STATEMENT OF CLAIM Page 3 1.2.3 Following the 2013 By-Election, Lee Li Lian of the WP was elected to the PE SMC seat. 1.3 The 1st Defendant: Sylvia Lim 1.3.1 Sylvia Lim was fielded successfully as a candidate in a group of candidates from the WP elected for the electoral division of Aljunied GRC in the 2011 General Election and the 2015 General Election. 1.3.2 Sylvia Lim has been an Elected Member of AHTC from 7 May 2011 to date and has held the following appointments in AHTC: a. From June 2011 to August 2015: Chairman of AHTC. b. June 2012 to date: Member of the Tenders and Contracts