Supreme Court to WP: Time to carry HDB's bidding

[Sammyboy RSS Feed]

An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/...o/2447430.html

SINGAPORE: The Supreme Court has ordered the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) to nominate a "Big 4" accounting firm, after their latest nomination was rejected by by the Housing and Development Board of Singapore (HDB) as they were "not suitably qualified".

In court on Friday (Jan 22), lawyer Peter Low, who is representing AHTC, said that they were recommending Mr Calvin Teo, Mr Terence Ng and Mr Sarjit Singh from Ardent Accounting to undertake the work required.

Mr Low said Mr Teo and Mr Ng were both chartered accountants, have forensic experience in accounting and litigation support, have acted as expert witnesses, are members of Chartered Certified Accountants and also have law degrees.

However, HDB lawyer Aurill Kam said that the accountants did not have relevant expertise. Ms Kam also mentioned that a third accountant - Mr Sarjit Singh - was also put forth at 11pm on Thursday night and that there was little time to consider his qualifications. Mr Singh was not brought up earlier by Mr Low.

Ms Kam also requested that the accountants nominated be subject to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority's (ACRA) Practice Monitoring Programme (PMP) - a regulatory instrument in promoting audit quality – which the first two accountants are not subject to.

She said that the PMP results still remain relevant as HDB's request for a public accountant who can sign off on statutory audits is reasonable.

Ms Kam also reiterated the HDB's request to nominate a major firm, saying that there was too little time to do due diligence on the newly-nominated accountants.

However, Mr Low said that the request was neither relevant nor necessary, adding that WP felt that since it was up to them to choose an accountant, there was no need to choose one from the big four accounting firms.


Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com.