Two foreign national auditors – a Malaysian and an British citizen – are central playmakers in the S$33 million civil lawsuit set up by the ruling party to unseat 3 opposition MPs. In Singapore, KPMG and Pricewaterhouse (PwC) are big names and throned as two of the “big fours”. The two audit firms appears to hold a platinum class of credibility and that their every word is to be trusted in Singapore.
This is however not so in other parts of the world.
Just earlier in June, a PwC partner was banned for 15 years and fined £500,000 (about S$900,000) for producing a lopsided audit report. The PwC auditor appeared to have taken bribes to present a fake report to fool investors. Also in June this year, KPMG was fined at a greater £3.2 million, for similarly producing a fake audit report in UK. KPMG was again in August hit with another £3 million fine for criminal misconduct in its audit report.
KPMG is also found with presenting an unfair audit report of stolen Malaysian state funds 1MDB. The worst part of it is KPMG being a spineless critter, with itself dismissing its own Najib-era report once the new Malaysian government was elected.
Given PwC and KPMG’s tattered reputation, why is the Singapore Court taking their affidavit seriously or even considering them at all?
An independent commission should rightfully be conducted on the audit reports presented by PwC and KPMG – who are both paid by the ruling party PAP. If the two firms have adopted similar auditing principles as their rogue headquarters in the UK, it would not be surprised to find the audit report similarly presenting injudicious opinions on the Workers’ Party MPs.
The most conspicuous part of the trial is that the prosecution has not even presented a single witness who could identify itself as an aggrieved party. There is no victim, the police has announced “no wrongdoing”, and it is only the government’s creatively-written “financial rules” that were broken, so where is even the case?
Singaporeans with a keen understanding of the ruling party dictatorship should know better. The trial is a persecution to unseat the WP MPs and grant the ruling party a major headstart in the coming General Election. With the three WP heavyweights disqualified, the PAP could easily pick up Aljunied GRC and Hougang SMC – considering that Singaporeans have repeatedly presented themselves as foolhardy to government propaganda published on Straits Times.
Everything is a farce. It is legalised corruption at works. Singaporeans who stand up for justice and criticise the persecution will be jailed under falsified charges of contempt of court, and myself be charged with propagating fake news. This is the Lee Hsien Loong dictatorship.
Alex Tan
STR Editor