Thursday, November 07, 2019

Parliament has passed a motion on the AHTC case

Parliament has passed a motion to ask the 2 WP MPs to recuse themselves from the financial affairs of the Aljunied Hougang Town Council.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/wp-cannot-stay-silent-ahtc-case-heng-swee-keat-motion-parliament-12065432?

What effect does this motion really have?

It is not a law. It is just a motion of Parliament. The two WP MPs may agree to abide by the motion. But they may also decide to ignore the motion.

Apparently, they have decided to ignore it, as they wanted to wait for the outcome of the appeal..

If they had committed a criminal offense, e.g. pocketed money, they would have been charged under the penal code. But they did not.

They did waive the requirement under the Act to call for a tender and appeared to have awarded the contract at a higher price than the market, but this does not seem to be a criminal offense.

The deputy PM, who moved the motion, did ask these two MPs to uphold the integrity expected of MPs, but they appeared to have disagreed, as they consider the action to be unfair.

It is a mess! But I guess this kind of problem happens in other countries as well.

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