WP's case of appointing accountants – Court rejects AGOs submission

In the case where the opposition-run town council, Aljunied Hougang Town Council (AHTC) applied to address the Court of Appeal on the appointment of accountants and on costs, the Court has ruled that AHTC, Housing & Development Board (HDB) and Ministry of National Development (MND) AHTC, bear their own legal costs.
In its press statement, the town council said that in this regard it “welcomes the Court’s rejection of the submission of the Attorney-General’s Chambers (representing MND & HDB) that AHTC’s conduct of its defence during the course of the hearings at the High Court and at the Court of Appeal was egregious and somehow improper”.
AHTC also said that the Courts clarification that the “accountants to be appointed in accordance with its judgment of 27 Nov 2015 were not being given a carte blanche to look into the TC’s affairs”, was very helpful.
“Their remit was to identify the outstanding non-compliances with Section 35(c) of the Town Councils Act, highlighted in the Auditor-General’s report of February 2015 and the TCs’ auditors’ reports for FY13/14 and FY14/15”, the press release said.
AHTC agreed to further correspond with HDB to identify and nominate the accountants, saying that this will be resolved at a further hearing expected around the end of next week.