The Town Council formerly known as Hong Kah

The more one digs the more finds…..

Mr Ang Mong Seng, the former MP for Hong Kah GRC (Bukit Gombak) is named at the following website of United Fibre Systems Ltd as one of its Independent Directors. That is perfectly fine.
http://www.ufs.com.sg/corp_team.html

The write-up on that website says this about Mr Ang.

"Mr. Ang is a Member of Parliament for Hong Kah GRC (Bukit Gombak). He has almost 30 years of experience in estate management. He is the Chief Operating Officer of EM Services Pte Ltd, Chairman of Hong Kah Town Council and Vice Chairman of South- West Community Development Council."

He didn’t seek re-election this time around. So, the site is obviously not updated yet. But, note that he is referred to as the Chief Operating Officer of EM Services Pte Ltd. To be fair, the estate management of Hong Kah Town Council is provided by Esmaco Pte Ltd and not by EM Services Ltd. EM Services provides its services for the following Town Councils:

East Coast Town Council
Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council
Jalan Besar Town Council
Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council
Sembawang Town Council
Tampines Town Council
Tanjong Pagar Town Council

So, there’s no direct conflict of interest there. He is not involved in the management of those town councils. Ideally, being the MP for Bukit Gombak and therefore being involved in the Town Council management of Hong Kah Town Council, he should have avoided retaining the position of COO in EM Services. The problem is that EM Services has tendered for estate management in many Town Councils and has also tendered for projects in Hong Kah.

In fact, on 7th August 2009, a term contract for the servicing and maintenance of Senior Citizens’ fitness equipment was awarded to EM Services for the period of 1 Dec 2009 to 30th Nov 2011 by the Hong Kah Town Council. Again, to be fair, Mr Ang was not sitting in the Tenders Committee of the Town Council. Although, there may not in fact have been any interference and the entire process may have been above board, it is sometimes not enough for office bearers to merely insist that everything was clean and above board. It is necessary for them to be seen to be above board as well. The best way to do it is to remove yourself from those companies that may potentially bid for such contracts or to cause those companies not to tender for the contracts in the first place.