SINGAPORE: Proceedings on the fifth day of the landmark Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) trial delved into various invoices that Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council (PRPTC) had taken issue with.

This was over a lack of signatures on one set of invoices, and a lack of documentation on another.

The exchange was between PRPTC’s witness, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) partner Goh Thien Phong, and Senior Counsel Chelva Retnam Rajah, who represents Workers’ Party (WP) Members of Parliament Sylvia Lim, Low Thia Khiang and Pritam Singh, along with two AHTC councillors.

The defendants are accused of breaching the Town Councils Financial Rules (TCFR), which stipulate how town councils should operate.

READ: S$60 million in payments recorded manually, says KPMG

In particular, 56 invoices issued by the town council in November 2015 that amounted to about S$674,000 were said to have breached the TCFR as they bore no signatures from the head of department.

These invoices, for goods or services done by contractors such as landscape and construction firms and security firms, are related to “improper” payments that AHTC is accused of allowing to its former managing agent, FM Solutions and Services (FMSS), and other parties.

At that time, AHTC was known as Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council or AHPETC as WP held the Single Member Constituency of Punggol East.

The People’s Action Party won Punggol East SMC in the 2015 General Election, after which the ward came under PRPTC.

Mr Rajah on Thursday (Oct 11) asked Mr Goh, whose company’s auditing report formed part of the basis for both PRPTC’s and AHTC’s lawsuits against the defendants, how exactly the 56 invoices breached the TCFR.

Mr Goh said that not having the head of department sign off on the invoices was a breach of financial rules.

The relevant segment in the TCFR stipulates that: “It is the responsibility of the head of department to satisfy himself that … the prices charged are either according to contracts or approved scales, or fair and reasonable according to current local rates.”

READ: Defence lawyers in AHTC trial slam the way KPMG compared managing agent costs

In response, Mr Rajah said there were various documents in the payment process, and that although the invoices may not have been signed off on, other documents had.

Mr Rajah referred to the affidavit of current general manager and secretary of AHTC Vincent Koh Weng Kong, who rebutted the allegation, saying that it was “incorrect” to focus on the payment vouchers.

He said the payment vouchers were prepared based on voucher journal reports, which had been properly certified and, according to him, fulfilled the requirements in the TCFR.

To this, Mr Goh said that the invoices themselves have to be signed by the department head to ensure that amounts were accurate and works were properly done.

“There is a procedure by the town council that everybody has to follow. It doesn’t matter what Mr Koh thinks,” he added.

He explained that each document in the payment process serves a purpose, and has to be signed off by the relevant authority. “It doesn’t mean that when one person signs on one of them, it can substitute another.”

WERE SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS GIVEN TO AUDITORS?

During the cross-examination, Mr Rajah and Mr Goh also disagreed on whether supporting documents for some specific invoices had been given to the PwC auditors.

Lawyers for PRPTC have contended that these 12 invoices – that AHPETC had paid in Nov 2015 – had missing or incomplete supporting documents and evidence of work done. As a result of the lack of documents, the payments were deemed “improper”.

However, Mr Rajah stressed that many of the documents were in fact handed over by AHTC to PRPTC in late 2015. He pointed out that during that period, AHTC was in the midst of handing over documents pertaining to Punggol East to PRPTC.

READ: MND had ‘no difficulty’ accepting AHTC’s waiver of tender for managing agent, says defence

He also pointed to a chain of emails exchanged between PRPTC’s general manager Kwok Wei Kim and Mr Koh, in which Ms Kwok had thanked Mr Koh for handing over the documents listed. “From the emails, it would appear that the documents were already with Ms Kwok,” he said.

This took place, he said, almost 11 months before PwC began its work on Nov 1, 2016.

However, Mr Goh responded that he was not aware of this. “It would be curious if this were the case, because supporting documents are supposed to come together,” he said. “When we asked for it, the town council’s finance team at AHTC said it wasn’t there.”

The trial continues on Friday with Mr Rajah resuming his cross-examination of Mr Goh.

SINGAPORE: For the fourth year in a row, Singapore has been ranked first among the best places for expats to live and work in, according to an HSBC survey. 

A total of 22,318 expats took part in the HSBC Expat Explorer survey conducted by YouGov in March and April.

According to the survey, Singapore was ranked first out of 31 places. 

While expats in Singapore are paid less on average than those working in Hong Kong, the Southeast Asian country did better in the ratings of its family benefits and overall quality of life.

COMPETITIVE SALARIES, GOOD FOR KIDS

Salaries for expats in Singapore are more than 30 per cent above the global average, according to the survey. Many said they moved to Singapore to advance their careers (45 per cent) and improve their earnings (38 per cent).

Their average annual income is US$160,000 (S$221,522), a 29 per cent improvement from their earnings back home, the survey added. 

This puts Singapore in third place for the annual income of expats in the Asia-Pacific, losing out to Hong Kong, where expats earn an average of US$180,000 and China, where they earn an average of US$170,000 each year.

Switzerland paid expats the most – US$203,000 per year or twice the global level.

Singapore is also a good place for expats with families, with nearly three-quarters of them saying that their children’s overall quality of life is better here. 

“The quality of childcare and education are considered better than at home for many expats and 60 per cent say their children’s health and wellbeing has improved,” the survey said. 

Four out of five expats in Singapore also have confidence in the political and economic stability of the country, the survey said, and 78 per cent said they would recommend the city-state to anyone thinking of moving abroad.

“More than a quarter of Singapore expats may have originally been sent by their employer (27 per cent), but almost half (47 per cent) have stayed in this safe, well-organised city and its lush, vibrant surroundings for the great quality of life it offers them and their family,” the survey said.

MORE WORK STRESS, HIGH COST OF LIVING

However, living in Singapore can be stressful for some expats, with 46 per cent saying that the levels of stress at work in Singapore are higher than what they had experienced back home.

“Three quarters are employed full-time and more than half say their work/life balance is the same or worse than it was at home,” the survey said.

The high cost of living in Singapore can be a problem for some expats too, with only 26 per cent of expats owning a property in the country.

Two in four expats said that they could not afford to buy a home in Singapore, according to the survey, and most choose to buy in their home country instead.

A total of 524 interviews were conducted on expats in Singapore while 169 were conducted for expats from Singapore. 

Meanwhile, Singaporeans who venture abroad acknowledge a better work/life balance, with half of them saying that they have found personal fulfilment at work overseas.

“Having left a well-organised, structured and carefully managed culture to plunge into the great global unknown, far more Singaporeans abroad (51 per cent) feel the experience has made them more adaptable than the global average (39 per cent),” the survey said.

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s stock market slumped as much as 3 per cent to its lowest in 20 months on Thursday (Oct 11), joining a global equity rout after a sell-off on Wall Street spooked investors.

Investors sold across the board amid a confluence of factors, including rising interest rates in the United States, a heated Sino-US trade battle as well as IMF warnings about global financial stability and growth risks.

The key Straits Times Index (STI) fell as low as 3,035.2, the lowest since on Feb 3 last year, before gaining back some ground to close down 2.7 per cent at 3,047.39.

The STI was weighed down by heavy losses in financials, with UOB, DBS and OCBC closing down about 2.5 per cent each.

In all, 2.1 billion shares worth S$1.6 billion were traded in Singapore on Thursday, with losers outpacing gainers at 429 to 72.

Across the region, the Shanghai Composite Index plunged more than 6 per cent before recouping some ground to end the day down 5.22 per cent at 2,583.46 points, levels not touched since Nov 25, 2014.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index closed down 3.5 per cent at 25,266.37 points, its lowest level since May 19, 2017.

South Korean stocks plunged 4.4 per cent to 2,2129.67, the sharpest in almost seven years, while the Nikkei plunged 3.9 per cent to 22,590.86.

The steep drop in Asia followed Wednesday’s plunge in New York, with the Dow Jones dropping nearly 830 points – the biggest fall since February.

“All bets are off,” warned Mr Stephen Innes, head of Asia-Pacific trading at OANDA, adding that markets were “fraught with peril”.

“The US equity bloodbath is taking no prisoners in Asia as a sea of red greets investors at the open, as equity deleveraging and liquidation intensifies,” he said.

Over the past few months, an intensifying trade war between the United States and China has also hit risk assets on worries about global growth.

The sharp fall on Wall Street on Wednesday was bad enough to attract the attention of US President Donald Trump, who said the sell-off was in fact a long-awaited “correction”, and that the Federal Reserve, which has been raising rates, had gone “crazy”.

Mr Steven Leung, sales director at brokerage UOB Kay Hian, said the impact of the US equity sell-off and trade war concerns were weighing on stocks and would endure across Asia.

“We haven’t really seen such a big downturn in US stocks for quite some time. Markets are not sure how long this will continue for,” he said. “The market is also worried that US-China relations will get even worse.”

THE Malaysian government’s announcement on its decision to abolish the death penalty for all crimes has given a ray of hope for anti-capital punishment campaigners in the region.

Yesterday, the country’s defacto Law Minister, Datuk Liew Vui Keong said Cabinet has decided to come up with a bill to be tabled in the next parliament sitting which begins on Oct 15.

This came after the country announced a moratorium on executions in July 2018.

Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said the announcement was a major step forward for all those who have campaigned for an end to the death penalty in Malaysia, adding the country will be joining 106 countries that have “turned their backs for good on the ultimate cruel, inhumane, degrading punishment.”

“Malaysia’s resort to the death penalty has been a terrible stain on its human rights record for years. In Malaysia death row prisoners are often cruelly kept in the dark about the outcome of their clemency applications and notified of their executions just days or hours before they happen,” Kumi said.

“There is no time to waste – the death penalty should have been consigned to the history books long ago. Malaysia’s new government has promised to deliver on human rights and today’s announcement is an encouraging sign, but much more needs to be done.”

According to Amnesty, at least 93 executions in nine countries were known to have been carried out throughout the Asia Pacific in 2017 – down from at least 130 in 11 countries in 2016.

The decrease, it said in a report earlier this year, was linked to a decline in Pakistan, where executions reduced by 31 percent. However, these figures do not include the thousands of executions that the rights group believed were carried out in China.

SEE ALSO: Pakistan: Man gets death sentence for blaspheming on Facebook

Singapore

Singapore doubled its number of executions last year, from four to right, compared to 2016, all of which were for drug-related offences, according to Amnesty.

Kirsten Han, co-founder of Singapore anti-death penalty advocacy group, We Believe in Second Chances said since the execution of Malaysian national Kho Jabing for murder in 2016, he has seen “the gap between the denial of a presidential pardon and the scheduling of an execution shrink, leaving families less time to anticipate the execution and prepare themselves mentally and emotionally, and also depriving anti-death penalty activists of the time and opportunity to act.”

“I doubt the abolition of the death penalty in Malaysia will have any immediate or short-term impact on Singapore’s capital punishment regime, which is practically one of the pillars of our criminal justice system,” Han said in the Malaysian Insight.

“But a Malaysia free of the death penalty will find itself in a much less awkward position; it was previously difficult for the Malaysian government to say very much about Malaysians on death row in countries like Singapore precisely because Malaysia itself executes people.”

In this 2012 photo, a worker arranges coffins that will be delivered to the prison island of Nusakambangan ahead of a round of executions. Source: AP

Brunei

Although hanging is a recognised form of punishment in Brunei, the small country is largely abolitionist in nature when it comes to the death sentence.

Crime punishable by death include murder, terrorism, drug trafficking, abetting suicide, arson, kidnapping, treason, mutiny, and perjury, but no known executions have occurred in Brunei since 1957.

However, in April, 2014, the majority Muslim country adapted Sharia law into its justice system and imposed the stoning by death for adultery, sodomy, rape, apostasy, blasphemy, and insulting Islam.

Vietnam

Vietnam is largely retentionist with regards to capital punishment. For many years, the method of execution was shooting by firing squad, according to a Cornell Law School database. Previous reports said tn the past, a deathrow inmate is tied to a wooden post and has his mouth stuffed with lemons before being shot by a firing squad of five to seven people. After the firing, an office would use a pistol to shoot the condemned in the ear.

In June 2010, Vietnam’s National Assembly voted to replace shooting with lethal injection, which was considered a more humane method of execution, the database pointed out.

However, due to a shortage of the necessary drugs, the National Assembly has mulled a return to shooting as the method of execution.

Philippines

Last year the Filipino government made move to revive the death penalty sets the country on a “dangerous path in flagrant violation” of its international legal obligations, according to Amnesty.

The draft that gained approval is a watered-down version of the original and has been amended to exclude crimes like rape, kidnap-for-ransom and plunder.

The draft law was passed amid over 8,000 deaths since Duterte was sworn into office in June 2016, many through extrajudicial executions in the country’s “drug war”.

The group points out under international law, the death penalty must be restricted to the most serious crimes, but drug-related crimes “do not meet this threshold”.

After World War II, the death penalty has been imposed on and off in the country.Since then, dozens of convicts were executed by electric chair between 1950 and 1986.

A year later, the death penalty was abolished, but restored in 1993 under President Fidel Ramos, before being scrapped again in 2006.

Amnesty pointed out in 2007, the Philippines ratified an international treaty which categorically prohibited executions and committed the country to the abolition of the death penalty.

Since 2006, the Philippines has been a strong advocate against capital punishment and has championed several initiatives to this end in international forums.

SEE ALSO: Thai PM says no to death sentence for fatal rape cases

French drug trafficker Serge Atlaoui is escorted by armed Indonesian elite police commandos following a court hearing in Tangerang in a suburb of Jakarta on March 11, 201. Source: AFP

Thailand

After a nine-year moratorium, Thai authorities executed a 26-year-old man by lethal injection on June 18, 2018, the country’s first execution since August 2009.

“Thailand’s resumed use of the death penalty marks a major setback for human rights,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

“The Thai government’s many pledges about moving toward abolishing the death penalty clearly meant nothing.”

The Corrections Department stated that the execution of Theerasak Longji, who was found guilty of aggravated murder six years ago, reflected Thailand’s standpoint that “focuses on protecting society, rather than the rights and freedoms of wrongdoers,” and sends a warning message that serious crimes will be severely punished, he said.

According to the Corrections Department, as of April, there were 517 prisoners (415 men and 102 women) on death row in Thailand. Most were convicted of drug-related offenses, HRW pointed out.

Indonesia

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo last year pointed out that a private opinion poll from 2015 showed 85 percent of Indonesians support the death penalty for drug traffickers.

In Indonesia, death-sentenced inmates are executed by firing squad and only learns of their impending execution 72 hours in advance.

Under former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia had a four-year unofficial moratorium which ended in March 2013. Another former President, BJ Habibie, in 2016 denounced Indonesia’s continued use of the death penalty.

But enthusiastic use of capital punishment has been a hallmark of Jokowi’s presidency despite widespread international criticism.

At least eighteen people have been killed for drug trafficking since his election in mid-2014, 15 of whom were foreign citizens. Jokowi has previously justified capital punishment on the basis that drug traffickers had “destroyed the future of the nation.”

In May 2016, Jokowi introduced new laws that punish paedophilia with the death penalty and chemical castration, in response to public outcry after a schoolgirl was brutally gang-raped.

Jokowi has previously declared drug trafficking a “national emergency” for Indonesia. In fact, public health experts estimate that only 0.5 percent of the country’s 250 million people “experiment” with drugs.

Jokowi’s administration has remained adamant in its refusal to grant clemency to foreigners on drug convictions.

SINGAPORE: Passengers were getting ready to board the world’s longest flight on Thursday (Oct 11) – a marathon 19 hours in the air between Singapore and New York.

Two pilots, a special “wellness” menu and more than seven weeks’ worth of film and television entertainment were expected to accompany travellers on the 16,700km journey to the Big Apple.

Singapore Airlines Flight SQ22 will use the long-range Airbus A350-900ULR, configured to carry 161 passengers – 67 in business class and 94 in premium economy.

For the flight crew – which also includes two first officers and a 13-strong cabin contingent – the work load will be broken up, the airline said, with every person getting a mandatory minimum four hours’ rest.

But for passengers, the challenge will be what to do with all that down time up in the air.

READ: Lift off: Singapore Airlines to boost US presence with world’s longest flight

For those not packing a weighty novel (or two), there will be 1,200 hours of audio-visual entertainment to choose from.

Dining options will include dishes the airline says have been selected to promote well-being in the skies, with organic dishes on the menu.

The cabin has higher-than-normal ceilings, larger windows and lighting designed to reduce jet lag – all part of an effort to lessen the stresses that can accompany almost a day on a plane.

“Research has shown that hydration and food intake are important factors (to consider), such as avoiding foods that cause gas or bloating as well as excessive alcohol,” Rhenu Bhuller, a healthcare expert at consultancy Frost & Sullivan, told AFP.

“The biggest concern is Deep Vein Thrombosis from a combination of sitting for too long and also from dehydration,” said Gail Cross, an associate consultant at the National University Hospital in Singapore.

“RACE BETWEEN AIRLINES”

The twin-engine plane that will make the journey uses a modified system that burns 25 per cent less fuel compared to other aircraft of a similar size, Airbus said.

The flight from the city-state to Newark Airport can take up to 18 hours and 45 minutes under normal weather conditions, but the pilots will have something in reserve in an aircraft capable of flying more than 20 hours non-stop.

Singapore Airlines originally flew the route for nine years using the gas-guzzling, four-engine A340-500 before abandoning it in 2013 because high oil prices made the service unprofitable.

But the carrier is hoping that the introduction of more fuel-efficient planes will set cash registers ringing even as crude prices soar above S$80.

Thursday’s flight will top the current longest direct link between cities – Qatar Airways Flight 921 from Auckland to Doha, which takes 17 hours 40 minutes.

“It’s turning out to be a race between a few airlines eyeing the longest routes inter-continentally,” said Shukor Yusof of aviation consultancy Endau Analytics.

“They are hoping to capitalise and exploit a very niche market,” he told AFP.

Facing increasingly strong competition in recent years, Singapore Airlines has consolidated its low-fare subsidiaries and is strengthening its premium segment.

“Ultra-long haul services comprise an important component of that strategy,” an airline spokesman told AFP.

The company is the first airline in the world to operate the A350-900ULR plane. It received the first aircraft in September. Six more are due for delivery by the end of the year.

“We are optimistic about the demand for non-stop services to the US,” the spokesman said.

SINGAPORE: Passengers were getting ready to board the world’s longest flight on Thursday (Oct 11) – a marathon 19 hours in the air between Singapore and New York.

Two pilots, a special “wellness” menu and more than seven weeks’ worth of film and television entertainment were expected to accompany travellers on the 16,700km journey to the Big Apple.

Singapore Airlines Flight SQ22 will use the long-range Airbus A350-900ULR, configured to carry 161 passengers – 67 in business class and 94 in premium economy.

For the flight crew – which also includes two first officers and a 13-strong cabin contingent – the work load will be broken up, the airline said, with every person getting a mandatory minimum four hours’ rest.

But for passengers, the challenge will be what to do with all that down time up in the air.

READ: Lift off: Singapore Airlines to boost US presence with world’s longest flight

For those not packing a weighty novel (or two), there will be 1,200 hours of audio-visual entertainment to choose from.

Dining options will include dishes the airline says have been selected to promote well-being in the skies, with organic dishes on the menu.

The cabin has higher-than-normal ceilings, larger windows and lighting designed to reduce jet lag – all part of an effort to lessen the stresses that can accompany almost a day on a plane.

“Research has shown that hydration and food intake are important factors (to consider), such as avoiding foods that cause gas or bloating as well as excessive alcohol,” Rhenu Bhuller, a healthcare expert at consultancy Frost & Sullivan, told AFP.

“The biggest concern is Deep Vein Thrombosis from a combination of sitting for too long and also from dehydration,” said Gail Cross, an associate consultant at the National University Hospital in Singapore.

“RACE BETWEEN AIRLINES”

The twin-engine plane that will make the journey uses a modified system that burns 25 per cent less fuel compared to other aircraft of a similar size, Airbus said.

The flight from the city-state to Newark Airport can take up to 18 hours and 45 minutes under normal weather conditions, but the pilots will have something in reserve in an aircraft capable of flying more than 20 hours non-stop.

Singapore Airlines originally flew the route for nine years using the gas-guzzling, four-engine A340-500 before abandoning it in 2013 because high oil prices made the service unprofitable.

But the carrier is hoping that the introduction of more fuel-efficient planes will set cash registers ringing even as crude prices soar above S$80.

Thursday’s flight will top the current longest direct link between cities – Qatar Airways Flight 921 from Auckland to Doha, which takes 17 hours 40 minutes.

“It’s turning out to be a race between a few airlines eyeing the longest routes inter-continentally,” said Shukor Yusof of aviation consultancy Endau Analytics.

“They are hoping to capitalise and exploit a very niche market,” he told AFP.

Facing increasingly strong competition in recent years, Singapore Airlines has consolidated its low-fare subsidiaries and is strengthening its premium segment.

“Ultra-long haul services comprise an important component of that strategy,” an airline spokesman told AFP.

The company is the first airline in the world to operate the A350-900ULR plane. It received the first aircraft in September. Six more are due for delivery by the end of the year.

“We are optimistic about the demand for non-stop services to the US,” the spokesman said.

SINGAPORE’s citizens and residents have high purchasing power, and they like to shop online.

E-commerce is a big industry in the country and is growing quickly — with sales expected to reach SG$10 billion (US$7.4 billion) by 2020.

However, the Lion City has a problem: its residents are workaholics by choice, and when they’re not at their desks, they’re enjoying the beautiful outdoors that the city’s founders have so carefully developed.

As a result, shopping is convenient, but receiving parcels is usually a pain. Further, retailers incur additional costs for parcels that go out but fail to be delivered.

To remediate the problem, the Singaporean government is working on a last mile delivery system called the Federated Lockers and Collection Points Programme.

The idea is to use self-serve lockers distributed throughout the city at gas stations, malls, office buildings, college and university campuses, and residential complexes so people can have their purchases sent to a locker that’s convenient to them while making sure work isn’t disrupted and deliveries aren’t missed.

SEE ALSO: Where are all the women in e-commerce? Shopping, apparently

According to an official statement, the programme aims to raise productivity and improve job quality for companies dealing in consumer retail, improve the livability of the city by reducing traffic congestion and carbon footprint generated when performing small parcel delivery, ease the last mile fulfilment challenges, and enable consumers to collect parcels at their convenience.

Illustration of the process flow of deliveries to parcel lockers. Source: Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA)

In order to better understand what this means for the city’s 5.6 million people, Soumik Roy, editor of our sister website Tech Wire Asia caught up with bluPorts — one of two companies tasked with operating and developing the locker program (The other being Singapore Post) — at the eCommerce Expo Asia 2018 summit in Singapore this week.

“We’re currently running a pilot with 90 bluPorts, automated parcel lockers, in convenience stores, petrol kiosks, and shopping malls — and hope to scale that up soon once the benefits are proven,” said bluPort COO Cliff Lim.

“We just identified a gap in the market and wanted to make things convenient for buyers and sellers alike.

“What we provide is a service that not only makes life easy for shoppers but also helps e-commerce companies in the country worry a lot less about ensuring packages get to buyers quickly and efficiently,” explained Lim.

“bluPort also significantly enhances the overall customer experience in the e-commerce industry,” he added.

While Lim is constantly working to bring more and more retailers and customers into the fold and on the platform, it isn’t a hard idea to sell, given the clear and immediate benefits.

Customers pay about SG$1.5 to SG$2.4 (US$1 to US$1.7) per delivery — which is considered quite reasonable given the (Singaporean) dollar value of the typical order (basket size) in the country SG$126 (US$91).

“Ultimately, it’s a concept that sells itself. DHL and FedEx, Nestle, Nissin, opentrolley, and several others see the value in what we do and feel that partnering with us brings added value to their customers,” claimed Lim.

According to the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA), the Federated Lockers and Collection Points programme will be piloted in Bukit Panjang and Punggol during this quarter for a period of one year, with an option to extend the pilot for another year.

This article was first published on our sister website Tech Wire Asia.