The Ridout Road parliamentary debate is in full swing, with four ministers — K Shanmugam, Vivian Balakrishnan, Edwin Tong, and Teo Chee Hean — giving their statements to address concerns and questions.
During the Q&A section on Monday (3 July), the ministers were asked to clarify allegations against Livspace, a firm where Mr Shanmugam’s son is the CEO.
Some have claimed that the contracts of works done on Ridout Road properties were awarded to the firm.
Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam made a stern stance in response to this, asking sceptics and naysayers to leave his family alone.
Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Ms Nadia Ahmad Samdin submitted a follow-up question on the preparatory works for the rental of the two state properties, 26 and 31 Ridout Road.
While seeking to clarify how SLA awards its contracts to vendors, she also asked Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong to address allegations that the contract for works relating to the properties was awarded to Livspace.
Mr Tong said the allegations were unwarranted.
“The sting of these allegations is that there’s a preference given to [Livspace] that is completely scurrilous and unwarranted.
“There is no basis to suggest it for both 26 and 31 [Ridout Road],” he stressed, adding that the official contractor was awarded the project through a tender.
After conducting checks, Mr Tong clarified that Livspace was not an appointed contractor, and neither did they have any transactions with SLA.
Before moving on to the next question, Mr Shanmugam quickly stood up to personally address the allegations too.
Mr Shanmugam moves to the podium as Mr Tong takes his seat
Source: MCI on YouTube
“Inevitably, there were many untruths circulated about me, my rentals, because I’m a political figure and obviously a target,” he said, referring to claims that SLA had built a car porch for him, that he was cutting down trees illegally, or that he was paying less than market value.
Emphasising that the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) has established these and other allegations to be untrue, he said,
But I’ve not been the only one attacked. My son has also been attacked.
Mr Shanmugam noted that he did not keep track of his son’s contracts, as there are established processes for awarding contracts by statutory boards.
“My son tells me his company does not have any contracts with SLA, nor did they do any work on the Ridout properties by SLA.”
I say it to these people, you want to come after me, you come after me. I’m perfectly capable of defending myself, and they will find out I will defend myself. But leave my family alone.
It was also addressed earlier in Parliament that the SLA valuer was unaware of the prospective Ridout Road tenants when setting the guide rent during the application process.
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Featured image adapted from MCI on YouTube.
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