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Preliminary investigations into Wednesday’s delays indicate that the faults could be similar to incidents in September – when signalling issues caused repeated delays for five consecutive days – and could have been caused by an interfering signal, say LTA and SMRT.
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HONG KONG – British investment banker Rurik Jutting acted rationally before and after he killed two Indonesian women in his luxury Hong Kong apartment, ordering food for one victim and calling his mother after the killings, the prosecution said on Wednesday.
Jutting, a former Bank of America Corp employee, has pleaded not guilty to the 2014 murders but guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter due to “diminished responsibility”, citing his heavy drug and alcohol abuse and sexual disorders.
The mutilated body of Sumarti Ningsih, 23, was found in a suitcase on the balcony of Jutting’s apartment and Seneng Mujiasih, 26, was found inside the apartment with wounds to her neck and buttocks.
Prosecutor John Reading called Kavin Chow, an associate consultant at the Department of Forensic Psychiatry at Hong Kong’s Castle Peak Hospital, to state that Jutting had moments of sobriety in between the killings and should have been able to resist “the use of substance”.
Chow noted that Jutting acted rationally, ordering food for his victim Ningsih as well as cleaning up the bathroom after he killed her. “Despite the presence of abnormality of the mind it doesn’t substantially impair his mental responsibility,” she said.
Reading said Jutting called his mother after he killed Mujiasih, before he reported himself to police. Details of the conversation was not made clear in court.
Read also: British banker’s torture video stuns jury in Hong Kong murder trial
The defence have called British experts in forensic psychiatry and psychology who have testified that Jutting has recognised disorders from cocaine and alcohol abuse on top of his other personality disorders of sexual sadism and narcissism, which impaired his ability to control his behaviour.
The defence has also argued that Jutting, a 31-year-old Cambridge university graduate, felt huge stress during his banking career.
Reading said Jutting only worked for 10-15 days in the period before he was arrested and only worked a few hours per day. Jutting stopped responding to work in the second week of October, 2014, just before the killings, said Reading.
Jutting, a former vice president and head of Structured Equity Finance & Trading (Asia) at Bank of America, had felt great pressure when his boss told him his professional activities would be monitored, his defence has said.
The court heard on Tuesday that Jutting called his boss at the Bank of America in Hong Kong before he called the police and warned them that its reputation was at risk, defence lawyer Tim Owen said.
Read also: Hong Kong murder accused Jutting ‘deeply addicted to cocaine’
The trial, which is in its second week, has attracted large international scrutiny due to the brutality of the killings in a city where crime is relatively low.
Jutting captured hours of footage on his iPhone of him torturing Ningsih. He also filmed rambling monologues he called the “narcissistic ramblings of Rurik Jutting” where he discussed the murders, binged on cocaine and explained his violent sexual fantasies.
Freshly shaven and wearing a pale blue button down, Jutting focused on the session intently on Wednesday, making notes in his sectioned off area where he was flanked by three policemen.
Jutting smirked and smiled at times as his defence team challenged Chow, the prosecution witness.
Murder carries a mandatory life sentence, while manslaughter carries a maximum of life though a shorter sentence can be set.
SITTWE, Myanmar – A group of parliamentarians from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) called on Myanmar to probe reports of human rights abuses in troubled Rakhine state on Wednesday, as top diplomats based in the country set off to visit the area.
Troops have poured into northern Rakhine since militants believed to be Rohingya Muslims launched coordinated attacks on border posts on Oct. 9, killing nine police. The government says five soldiers and at least 33 alleged attackers have been killed in the military operation.
The territory has been cut off to aid workers and observers for more than three weeks. Residents and human rights advocates have said government forces have committed abuses including summary executions, rape and setting fire to homes.
The government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has denied any abuses have been committed.
The Rohingya, most of whom live in apartheid-like conditions, are seen by many Myanmar Buddhists as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Some 125,000 remain displaced and face severe travel restrictions in squalid camps since fighting erupted in Rakhine between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012.
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) has urged the Myanmar government to conduct a “thorough and impartial investigation into reports of abuses by security forces” against civilians in Rakhine.
It also called on the military to allow aid workers and journalists access to affected areas in order to provide humanitarian assistance and document developments.
“The reports coming out of Myanmar’s Rakhine State are alarming and demand a credible investigation… All authorities must take urgent action to prevent further violations and fulfil their responsibility to protect the rights of all civilians,” said APHR Chairperson Charles Santiago, a member of the Malaysian parliament.
“We remain deeply concerned, however, that as a result of the lack of government oversight of security forces, effective systems are not in place to protect civilians or support their chance of seeing justice served.”
The military operation has sharpened the tension between Suu Kyi’s six-month-old civilian administration and the army, which ruled the country for decades and retains key powers, including control of ministries responsible for security.
Suu Kyi, on a visit to Japan, was meeting the Burmese diaspora on Wednesday was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the afternoon.
The ambassadors of the United States, China, Britain and the European Union left the Rakhine capital, Sittwe, on Wednesday for the northern part of the state under military lockdown.
They were led by Nyi Pu, the Suu Kyi-appointed chief minister of Rakhine State. The list of participants reviewed by Reuters also included the top UN representative in Myanmar, Renata Lok-Dessallien, as well as envoys from several other countries, including India, Turkey and Indonesia.
The officials will visit the Maungdaw area, although the government has not shared a detailed itinerary.
The officials have privately expressed scepticism that the high-level diplomatic mission will address the concerns raised by the international community or gain thorough access and will be able to investigate abuses independently.
In a sign that the mission was carefully managed by the authorities, state media have been invited to film the diplomats visiting the area, but no international reporters were informed of the trip or allowed to join.
Rohingya sources from the area have echoed the concerns about independent access to witnesses, but said the diplomats were likely to visit villages where residents have told Reuters of rapes, destruction of houses and killings of civilians.
An 85-year-old engineer is believed to have drowned after falling into the sea off Pandan River while at work.
Mr Lim Meng Hoe was to have done maintenance work at a shipyard in Pandan Road, off the West Coast Highway, on Monday morning, according to Chinese daily Shin Min.
However, when workers did not see him, they looked and found his body floating in the waters at around noon. They immediately secured his body with a rope so it would not drift away.
He had been crossing from one tugboat to another when he fell, the Ministry of Manpower said yesterday. The police said they were investigating the unnatural death.
Mr Lim was working for Pan-United Shipping as an independent contractor, a spokesman for the company said. He was under a two-year contract slated to expire in 2017.
“We’re very saddened by what has happened. Our thoughts are with his family, and we have reached out to them to offer assistance during this difficult time,” she said.
Mr Lim was estranged from his wife and lived in Bukit Merah View with his younger brother, retiree Lim Meng Piew, 79.
The younger Mr Lim told The Straits Times his brother wanted to work through his golden years because he loved his job. “He didn’t want to be cooped up at home, he’d have been bored,” he said.
Despite his age, his brother was also fit, Mr Lim said. The nature of his job required him to “run around and climb”.
The senior Mr Lim and his wife had parted ways about 50 years ago. He leaves behind two children, a son aged 48 and a daughter aged 56, who are both engineers.
The last time Mr Lim saw his brother was at 6.30am on Monday.
“He was leaving for work. He told me he bought food, and that I should help myself. He was always very caring,” he said.
This article was first published on Nov 02, 2016.
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Stallholders at the revamped Chong Boon Market in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10 will be given more space to hawk their wares following feedback that their new stalls were too narrow, said Mr Kwar Ser Seng, chairman of the market’s hawker association.
The market at Block 453A was reopened yesterday following a six-month renovation.
The Straits Times understands that the Ang Mo Kio town council is allowing stallholders to take up to 30cm of space on the walkways so they can place goods outside their stalls.
Chicken seller Wee Lay Keong, 40, whose chiller currently juts out from the edge of his stall by about 30cm, said he welcomed the news. “We were wishing for an additional 45 or 50cm. But 30cm is better than nothing,” he said.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) had engaged the hawkers’ association and stallholders on plans for the centre, and had also shared the preliminary design proposal with them since May last year, the agency said yesterday.
However, stallholders were upset after collecting the keys to their stalls two weeks ago. Though longer, the new stalls were less deep than before.
NEA said that before the renovation, the size of the stalls was 3 sq m. Now, they range between 4.5 sq m and 5.4 sq m.
After collecting their keys, the stallholders appealed to the authorities to allow them to place goods outside their stalls.
Mr Kwar said stallholders may have been initially unhappy because they were not used to the newly constructed walls that limited their movements.
Prior to the revamp, the market had an open concept, with no walls separating the stalls.
The revamped stalls have low partition walls, which the NEA yesterday said “provide proper segregation of stalls, prevent stallholder disputes and ensure accountability of public hygiene within each stall”.
To free up space in stalls, hawkers can place their freezers in a common freezer area instead of within their individual stalls, said NEA.
Mr Ng Siow Hee, 63, a vegetable seller, said the space was enough for him. “It depends on how you arrange the tables in the stall,” he said, adding that business was good yesterday, with many of his regular customers returning.
This article was first published on Nov 02, 2016.
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The town councillors of Aljunied- Hougang Town Council (AHTC) may be liable for serious offences under the Penal Code, such as criminal breach of trust and abetment, independent auditor KPMG said in a report released yesterday .
The reason is that, as custodians of public funds entrusted to the town council, they have a fiduciary duty that entails “personal and collective responsibility”.
So, KPMG said, if the improper payments had been made deliberately, “they could amount to criminal conduct”.
The town councillors named in the report include Workers’ Party MPs Low Thia Khiang, Sylvia Lim, Pritam Singh and Png Eng Huat.
All four sit on the WP’s executive council: Mr Low is secretary-general; Ms Lim, the chairman; Mr Singh, the assistant secretary-general; and Mr Png, the organising secretary.
The report said payments totalling at least $23 million were approved by town council members with a conflict of interest. This raised questions about whether the payments were fully justified.
The auditors also identified improper payments totalling about $1.5 million, of which at least $624,000 ought to be recovered.
The report then went on to explain the duties and responsibilities of town councillors under the law.
Under the Town Council Financial Rules, an officer who makes a payment without proper authority or who incorrectly certifies a voucher shall be responsible for the amount. But such personal liability applies only when the officer did not act in good faith.
Town councillors, like public officers, have a fiduciary duty to two bodies: the Government and the public. The reason is that they are entrusted with the control and management of public funds.
Under the Town Council Act, members of a town council, like directors of a company, must declare their interests in transactions in which they are directly or indirectly interested. “This duty, to avoid a conflict of interest, goes to the heart of a fiduciary’s duty to his principal,” said KPMG.
It noted, among other lapses, the way AHTC governed matters related to its then managing agent FM Solutions and Services (FMSS) was seriously flawed. “An unacceptably high degree of financial responsibility was relinquished by the town councillors to the conflicted persons, in a control environment in which meaningful oversight by the town councillors was absent,” the report said.
AHTC also had a “failed control environment”, which showed in the lack of discipline in its financial operations and record-keeping.
“This exposed public funds to risks of erroneous payments, overpayments, payments for which services had not been sufficiently verified and payments without proper authority, as well as the potential for actual misappropriation or civil or criminal breach of trust,” it said.
A public servant or agent guilty of criminal breach of trust can be jailed for life, or jailed up to 20 years and fined. Abetment of the offence carries the same punishment.
The report concluded that its findings “may give rise to personal claims against the town councillors, or disclose the finding of criminality”. But KPMG stressed its findings are not meant to “conclusively” decide if the town councillors had broken the law.
“This report does not seek to make a finding on whether these circumstances, individually or collectively, demonstrate a deliberate course of action taken by the town councillors to benefit FMSS and (service provider FM Solutions and Integrated Services) FMSI,” it said.
But should such conduct have taken place intentionally, it would potentially amount to an offence under the Penal Code, it said.
This article was first published on Nov 02, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
The managing agent of Aljunied- Hougang Town Council (AHTC) was paid more than $600,000 in project management fees for services that should have been covered by its managing agent fees, said independent auditor KPMG in a report yesterday.
These were among several improper payments that the town council made to managing agent FM Solutions and Services (FMSS) and service provider FM Solutions and Integrated Services (FMSI), said KPMG.
Such improper payments were made in a situation where there were “control failures” and conflicts of interest, as the shareholders of the two companies were holding key management positions in the town council.
In all, KPMG identified improper payments amounting to more than $1.5 million to FMSS and FMSI, of which at least $624,621 should be recovered.
But in a written response to KPMG before the report was released, AHTC disagreed that most of the payments were improper.
The payments in question are: Project management fees In 99 invoices totalling $608,911, a 3.5 per cent project management fee was wrongly paid to FMSS for repairs and redecoration works.
The latest KPMG report is part of its ongoing audit of Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC), after lapses in governance were flagged by both its own auditors and the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO).
In February last year, the AGO released a special report on major lapses at the then Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council.
The lapses date as far back as 2011, when the Workers’ Party won Aljunied GRC and took over the town council.
They included inadequate management of conflicts of interest, and weaknesses in the approval of payments.
AHTC’s external auditors had also issued “disclaimers of opinion” for each of its financial statements for FY2012 to 2015, indicating insufficient information.
The AGO report was debated in Parliament, and the Ministry of National Development and the Housing Board applied to the courts to appoint independent accountants to look into AHTC’s books.
Last November, the Court of Appeal ordered AHTC to appoint accountants to establish whether any past payments made were improper and should thus be recovered.
But both sides could not agree on a firm. Eventually, in January this year, the court ordered AHTC to appoint one of the Big Four accounting firms.
In March, AHTC appointed KPMG. Since April, KPMG has provided monthly reports on AHTC’s progress in rectifying issues.
The amount should be recovered, said KPMG. It is more appropriate to classify the payments as managing agent services and these would be covered by FMSS’s managing agent fees.
FLAWS IN GOVERNANCE
The failed control environment ought not to have been permitted by the town councillors, pointing to a flawed system of governance overall. On the basis that such individuals hold fiduciary duties and responsibilities in respect of public funds entrusted to the town council, the town councillors bear a personal and collective responsibility for improper payments enabled or permitted by such a flawed system.
KPMG REPORT
IMPLICATIONS OF SHORTCOMINGS
While our work was not focused on identifying potential criminal acts arising from the issues we observed, we are advised that, had the shortcomings in Section 5 of this report been committed deliberately, they could amount to criminal conduct, the implications of which the town council should consider.
KPMG REPORT
KPMG also noted that on 83 occasions, project management fees totalling $611,786 were charged for what were really “a combination of project management services as well as managing agent services”.
AHTC disagreed in both instances. Advice from its lawyers said it is contractually allowed to appoint the managing agent to provide project management services for cyclical works.
It noted that when Aljunied GRC was run by the People’s Action Party (PAP), the then managing agent CPG had claimed project management fees for cyclical work, including repainting. Unsupported payments KPMG found $194,759 worth of payments to FMSS or FMSI that were not supported by certifications of services received, or by contracts. AHTC disagreed, providing evidence like a complaint log to show services were delivered.
But KPMG said this was not evidence that the work was satisfactorily delivered.
Payments in breach of financial authority KPMG found that $80,990 in cheque and bank transfers were made to FMSS even though the required co-signature of the AHTC chairman or vice-chairman was not obtained.
AHTC said this was a “technicality issue”.
Overpayment to FMSS KPMG found that AHTC had overpaid FMSS by $8,990 for overtime claims and Central Provident Fund contributions, and by $3,720 for electrical parts.
Besides the specific improper payments found, KPMG took issue with the broader context of AHTC’s “pervasive” control failures in areas such as governance, financial reporting and procurement.
These include a failure to address serious conflicts of interest and a lack of meaningful oversight by town councillors, it added.
There might be other improper payments which went undetected, it noted: “The same pervasive control failures that allowed improper payments would tend to conceal instances of improper payment.”
KPMG identified six FMSS shareholders who held key management posts in AHTC, such as secretary, general manager, and finance manager – creating a conflict of interest.
There were 748 transactions, totalling more than $23 million, where these persons “effectively certified or approved payments to themselves”, said KPMG.
KPMG further described the tender processes by which FMSS and FMSI were appointed as “inadequate and unsatisfactory”.
The first managing agent contract worth $5.4 million, from July 15, 2011, to July 14, 2012, was awarded to FMSS without a tender, and the circumstances did not justify this, said KPMG.
The second contract worth $23.2 million was awarded by tender, but AHTC “failed to secure competitive rates or sufficiently address FMSS’s serious conflicts of interest”.
KPMG estimated that AHTC paid $1.26 million more than if CPG had been retained.
AHTC’s “flawed governance… exposed public funds to the risk of improper use and application”, concluded KPMG.
This article was first published on Nov 02, 2016.
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Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) could have avoided paying $2.8 million if it had worked with lower-priced consultants, instead of engaging the pricier option without any reasonable justification, auditor KPMG said in its latest report.
Such actions could be a breach of the Town Council Financial Rules, KPMG added.
Apart from making improper payments to two companies whose shareholders worked in the town council, AHTC, formerly Aljunied- Hougang-Punggol East Town Council, also made improper payments to third-party consultants, suppliers and contractors, it said.
KPMG worked out that these amounted to about $5.4 million in all, with $2.4 million in expenditures incurred without authority, in a breach of the rules and its own internal controls.
“Such improper payments stem from a lack of discipline in the town council’s financial operations and record-keeping, reflecting the failed control environment,” KPMG said.
It added that the town council should recover what it can of its losses from the recipients of these improper payments.
On the higher-priced consultant, KPMG said the town council had appointed two consultants, A and B, through a tender process and placed them on a panel to work on certain projects at a fixed rate.
From time to time, both were engaged to provide services.
KPMG looked at 10 of the projects that Consultant A did for the town council, and found that it charged a higher fee than Consultant B for seven of the projects.
Yet “reasons for appointing Consultant A and not Consultant B for these projects were not documented at the relevant time”, it added.
KPMG noted the town council had informed it that Consultant B was working on two Neighbourhood Renewal Programme projects, and progress was deemed to be “slow-moving”. But apart from the town council’s meeting minutes in February 2013 stating that Consultant B was slightly behind schedule for a project at the pre-tender stage, there were no further discussions of its poor performance in later meetings, said KPMG.
AHTC also did not have documentation to support the view that Consultant B was less favourable. And there was “no meaningful panel” to choose the consultants from, as it had only two options, KPMG said.
But AHTC disagreed with the auditor’s view that this constituted an improper payment, adding that it has sought legal advice. It said both consultants were appointed to its panel following an open tender.
The Town Council Financial Rules should not apply to such a situation, AHTC added, as it was not going out to buy new services, but was instructing work under contracts that had been entered into.
This article was first published on Nov 02, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) acknowledged lapses in finance management, but denied there was a “significant lack of oversight” over its managing agent.
Responding to an earlier version of independent auditor KPMG’s report, released yesterday, AHTC disagreed that its town councillors had “surrendered” responsibility to managing agent FM Solutions and Services (FMSS).
KPMG had flagged conflicts of interest in how some FMSS shareholders also held management roles in AHTC with significant authority over financial affairs. There was “minimal oversight by the town councillors”, added KPMG.
In a process known as Maxwellisation, AHTC had been given a chance to respond to a draft of the report to confirm its factual accuracy – and rebut any factual findings if it disagreed. This was to ensure that it was given the opportunity to respond to any criticism. AHTC’s response was included as an annex to KPMG’s report yesterday.
In its reply, AHTC said double-hatting was “not unusual”.
It cited the secretary and general manager of former People’s Action Party-run Aljunied Town Council, who was also managing director of its managing agent, CPG Facilities Management. He had played an active role in approving town council payments to CPG.
Responding to the report yesterday, AHTC noted that KPMG had deployed at least 72 personnel at its offices over eight months to thoroughly examine millions of accounting entries and documents.
It noted that KPMG had found no duplicate or fictitious payments.
The latest KPMG report is part of its ongoing audit of Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC), after lapses in governance were flagged by both its own auditors and the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO).
In February last year, the AGO released a special report on major lapses at the then Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council.
The lapses date as far back as 2011, when the Workers’ Party won Aljunied GRC and took over the town council.
They included inadequate management of conflicts of interest, and weaknesses in the approval of payments.
AHTC’s external auditors had also issued “disclaimers of opinion” for each of its financial statements for FY2012 to 2015, indicating insufficient information.
The AGO report was debated in Parliament, and the Ministry of National Development and the Housing Board applied to the courts to appoint independent accountants to look into AHTC’s books.
Last November, the Court of Appeal ordered AHTC to appoint accountants to establish whether any past payments made were improper and should thus be recovered.
But both sides could not agree on a firm. Eventually, in January this year, the court ordered AHTC to appoint one of the Big Four accounting firms.
In March, AHTC appointed KPMG. Since April, KPMG has provided monthly reports on AHTC’s progress in rectifying issues.
But KPMG countered that FMSS’ situation was different from that of the CPG employee.
“For other managing agents, those signing off payments for the town councils are not, as shareholders, ultimate beneficiaries of a fixed proportion of every payment to the managing agent that they approve,” said KPMG.
As for the conflict of interest that arises when such persons have authority in financial transactions, AHTC said having co-signatories – the town council chairman or vice-chairman – is an effective control measure.
KPMG said co-signatories could potentially be influenced by the persons with a conflict of interest.
To this, AHTC replied: “To suggest that a co-signatory can be influenced easily casts aspersions on his/her integrity.”
AHTC also disagreed that there was inadequate oversight over day-to-day management, citing meeting minutes that indicated checks and queries on FMSS’ work.
“The town councillors were vigilant and did not merely accept FMSS’ proposals and preferences,” AHTC said. It cited how it instructed FMSS to prioritise the Auditor-General’s Office audit despite FMSS’ reservations about the impact on its functions.
AHTC further disagreed with KPMG’s assessment of its managing agent’s performance as “highly lacking”. Though there were lapses in finance management, FMSS was performing satisfactorily in estate management, said AHTC.
Responding to the report yesterday, AHTC noted that KPMG had deployed at least 72 personnel at its offices over eight months to thoroughly examine millions of accounting entries and documents. It noted that KPMG had found no duplicate or fictitious payments.
AHTC added that it was still studying the report in detail.
Janice Heng
This article was first published on Nov 02, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
