Despite repeated offers by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) to cover the additional expenses incurred in hiring a Big Four accounting firm, the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) has been reluctant to do so.

Its reasons for this emerged in court yesterday. One of the firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers, was involved in the Auditor-General’s Office report that flagged major lapses in the town council’s practices.

Addressing this in his judgment yesterday, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said: “We are unsure why this should be a concern as there was no issue taken as to the audit or its processes.”

Deloitte & Touche LLP, on the other hand, has a partner involved in grassroots work and who gave a media interview in his professional capacity in February 2014 on AHTC’s audited accounts.

In an affidavit, AHTC’s vice-chairman Sylvia Lim also said that the town council’s lawyers had received “an unsolicited offer” from Deloitte on Thursday, offering its services. She added that the letter was “legally crafted” and copied to Ms Aurill Kam, who is representing the HDB.

Ms Kam, Deputy Chief Counsel (Litigation) at the Attorney-General’s Chambers, told the court yesterday that she had “nothing to do” with the letter being sent.

Addressing a question on why AHTC did not consider the remaining two Big Four firms, namely KPMG and Ernst & Young, Ms Lim said that it was unhelpful to go into the details, given that the apex court has directed the town council to choose from the four accounting firms.

Speaking to reporters outside court, Ms Lim said: “We have said that it was the town council’s prerogative to choose and we did not choose the Big Four. But now that we’ve been directed to choose from among the Big Four, we’ll do so.” VALERIE KOH