Jurong Town Corporation (Amendment) Bill

Bill No. 28/2017

Read the first time on 1 August 2017.

An Act to amend the Jurong Town Corporation Act (Chapter 150 of the 1998 Revised Edition), and to make consequential amendments to certain other Acts.

Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows:

Short title and commencement

1. This Act is the Jurong Town Corporation (Amendment) Act 2017 and comes into operation on a date that the Minister appoints by notification in the Gazette.

Amendment of section 2

2. Section 2 of the Jurong Town Corporation Act (called in this Act the principal Act) is amended by deleting the definitions of “authorised occupier” and “commercial property”.

Amendment of section 10

3. The principal Act is amended by renumbering section 10 as subsection (1) of that section, and by inserting immediately thereafter the following subsection:

“(2) Every member, officer and employee of the Corporation is, in relation to his administration, collection and enforcement of payment of composition sums under section 67, taken to be a public officer for the purposes of the Financial Procedure Act (Cap. 109); and section 20 of that Act applies to each of these persons even though he is not or was not in the employment of the Government.”.

New section 27

4. The principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after section 26, the following section:

“Power to make rules

27.—(1) Despite section 32, the Corporation may, with the approval of the Minister, make rules prescribing anything that is to be prescribed and generally for carrying out the provisions of this Act.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the Corporation may, with the approval of the Minister, make rules for or in respect of all or any of the following matters:

(a)

regulating the use and enjoyment of any common property or open space in any land vested in the Corporation, including —

(i)	restricting or prohibiting behaviour or activities on the common property or open space;
(ii)	restricting or prohibiting parking of vehicles on any common property or open space which is not a parking place within the meaning of the Parking Places Act (Cap. 214);
(iii)	waste disposal;
(iv)	safety or security measures; and
(v)	power for the Corporation to move, store or dispose of, or authorise the disposal of, objects or things left on such common property or open space and the passing of title to any objects or things on such disposal;

(b)

prescribing that any act or omission in contravention of any rule shall be an offence punishable by a fine not exceeding $5,000;

(c)

prescribing the penalty (such penalty, if unpaid, to constitute a debt due to the Corporation and be recoverable as such) to be paid by the Corporation’s lessee or licensee for late payment of any moneys due to the Corporation under any lease, tenancy or licence.

(3) The Corporation or a duly authorised employee of the Corporation who reasonably believes that any person has committed an offence under any rules made under this section may require the person to furnish evidence of the person’s identity, and the person must furnish such evidence of that identity as so required.

(4) Any person who —

(a)	without reasonable excuse, refuses to furnish any information required of the person by the Corporation or duly authorised employee of the Corporation under subsection (3); or
(b)	wilfully misstates such information,

shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (4), a person is not excused from disclosing any information required under subsection (3) on the ground that to do so might tend to incriminate the person or expose the person to a penalty.

(6) All rules made under this Act are to be presented to Parliament as soon as possible after publication in the Gazette.”.

Repeal and re-enactment of Part IV

5. Part IV of the principal Act is repealed and the following Part substituted therefor:

“PART IV

TRANSFER OF HDB INDUSTRIAL UNDERTAKINGS

Interpretation of this Part

36. In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires —

“asset”, in relation to the transferor, means property of any kind (whether tangible or intangible, whether arising from, accruing under, created or evidenced by or the subject of, an instrument or otherwise and whether present, future or contingent) of the transferor on the eve of the transfer date and includes, without limitation —

(a)	a legal or equitable interest in real or personal property;
(b)	a chose in action;
(c)	a security;
(d)	money;
(e)	intellectual property;
(f)	infrastructure, plant and equipment;
(g)	records and information (including data) in any form;
(h)	a right;

“excluded undertaking” means such assets and liabilities of the transferor which are determined under section 41(1) as assets and liabilities that must not be transferred to the Corporation under this Part;

“Industrial Properties Group” means the department of the transferor known as the Industrial Properties Group;

“liability”, in relation to the transferor, means any liability, duty or obligation (whether actual or contingent, liquidated or unliquidated, and whether owed alone or jointly or jointly and severally with any other person) of the transferor on the eve of the transfer date;

“records”, in relation to the transferor, means registers, papers, documents, minutes, receipts, books of account and other record, however compiled, recorded or stored, of the transferor existing on the eve of the transfer date;

“right”, in relation to the transferor, means any right, power, privilege or immunity of the transferor on the eve of the transfer date;

“transfer date” means a date specified by the Minister by order in the Gazette;

“transferor” means the Housing and Development Board constituted under the Housing and Development Act (Cap. 129);

“transferring employee” means an employee of the transferor who, on the eve of the transfer date, is deployed in the Industrial Properties Group.

Transfer of undertaking to Corporation

37.—(1) On the transfer date, all assets and liabilities of the transferor that relate to the functions of the Industrial Properties Group, except the excluded undertaking, are transferred to the Corporation.

(2) When any assets or liabilities are transferred under subsection (1), the following provisions have effect:

(a)	the assets of the transferor that are the subject of the transfer vest in the Corporation by virtue of this section and without the need for any further conveyance, transfer, assignment or assurance;
(b)	the liabilities of the transferor that are the subject of the transfer become by virtue of this section the liabilities of the Corporation;
(c)	all legal or other proceedings relating to those assets or liabilities that are started before the transfer date by or against the transferor and pending immediately before that date are taken to be proceedings pending by or against the Corporation;
(d)	any legal or other proceedings relating to those assets or liabilities which could have been started immediately before the transfer date by or against the transferor may be started by or against the Corporation;
(e)	a judgment or order of a court or other tribunal obtained before the transfer date by or against the transferor relating to those assets or liabilities may be enforced by or against the Corporation;
(f)	any document relating to legal or other proceedings relating to those assets or liabilities that has been served on or by the transferor before the transfer date is taken, where appropriate, to have been served on or by the Corporation;
(g)	any act, matter or thing done or omitted to be done before the transfer date in relation to those assets or liabilities by, to or in respect of the transferor is (to the extent to which that act, matter or thing has any force or effect) taken to have been done or omitted by, to or in respect of the Corporation;
(h)	a reference in any written law, in any instrument made under any Act, in any contract, agreement, arrangement or undertaking, or in any document of any kind to the transferor, as regards anything falling to be done or capable of being done on or after the transfer date and to the extent to which the reference relates to those assets or liabilities, is taken to be, or includes, a reference to the Corporation;
(i)	a reference in any written law, in any instrument made under any Act, in any contract, agreement, arrangement or undertaking, or in any document of any kind to an officer of the transferor, as regards anything falling to be done or capable of being done on or after the transfer date and to the extent to which the reference relates to those assets or liabilities, is taken to be, or includes, a reference to an officer of the Corporation whom the Corporation appoints for that purpose.

(3) In particular —

(a)	all security deposits deposited with the transferor in relation to any assets or liabilities transferred under subsection (1) and not forfeited before the transfer date; and
(b)	the benefits of all indemnities, guarantees or warranties given to the transferor in relation to any assets or liabilities transferred under subsection (1) and not discharged before that date,

are, without further assurance, transferred and deemed deposited with or given to the Corporation.

(4) The operation of this section does not —

(a)	constitute a breach of, or default under, an Act or other law or otherwise a civil wrong or criminal wrong;
(b)	constitute a breach of duty of confidence (whether arising by contract, in equity, by custom, or in any other way);
(c)	constitute a breach of any contractual provision prohibiting, restricting or regulating the assignment or transfer of assets or liabilities or the disclosure of any information;
(d)	terminate an agreement or fulfil any condition that allows a person to terminate any agreement or obligation, or give rise to any right or remedy in respect of any agreement or obligation;
(e)	cause any contract or instrument to be void or otherwise unenforceable;
(f)	frustrate any contract or release any surety or other obligor wholly or in part from any obligation;
(g)	release a surety or other obligee wholly or in part from an obligation; or
(h)	constitute an event of breach of, or default under, any contract or other instrument.

(5) No attornment to the Corporation by a lessee from the transferor is required.

Transferring employees to Corporation

38.—(1) On the transfer date, every transferring employee —

(a)	stops being an employee of the transferor; and
(b)	is each transferred to the service, and becomes an employee, of the Corporation on terms no less favourable than those enjoyed by the employee on the eve of the transfer date.

(2) The transfer of a transferring employee to the Corporation —

(a)	does not interrupt continuity of service;
(b)	does not constitute a retrenchment or redundancy; and
(c)	does not entitle any employee so transferred to any payment or other benefit merely because he stops being employed by the transferor.

(3) A certificate purporting to be signed by the Minister certifying that an individual named in the certificate was, with effect from the transfer date, employed by virtue of this section by the Corporation, is admissible in evidence in any proceedings as evidence of the matters stated in it.

(4) Nothing in this section prevents —

(a)	any of the terms and conditions of employment of an individual transferred under this section from being altered by or under any law, award or agreement with effect from any time after the transfer date; and
(b)	an individual transferred under this section from resigning from the Corporation at any time after the transfer date, in accordance with the terms and conditions of his employment then applicable.

(5) To avoid doubt, section 18A of the Employment Act (Cap. 91) does not apply to the transfer under this Part of any employee to the Corporation.

General preservation of employment terms

39.—(1) The service with the Corporation of an employee transferred under section 38 (called in this section a transferred employee) must be regarded for all purposes as having been continuous with the service of the employee with the transferor immediately before the transfer date.

(2) On the transfer date —

(a)	a transferred employee retains all accrued rights as if employment with the Corporation were a continuation of employment with the transferor;
(b)	the liabilities of the transferor relating to the transferred employee’s accrued rights to annual, sick, maternity or other leave and superannuation become the liabilities of the Corporation; and
(c)	a reference in the contract of employment that had effect in relation to the transferred employee immediately before the transfer date is taken to be, or includes, a reference to the Corporation.

(3) For any conduct whilst a transferred employee was employed by the transferor which would have rendered the employee liable to be reprimanded, reduced in rank, retired, dismissed or punished by the transferor, the Corporation may —

(a)	start any disciplinary proceedings against that employee;
(b)	carry on and complete any disciplinary proceedings started by the transferor against the transferred employee if those proceedings are pending on the eve of the transfer date; and
(c)	reprimand, reduce in rank, retire, dismiss or otherwise punish a transferred employee, as if the employee were not transferred.

(4) Where, on the eve of the transfer date, any matter about the conduct of a transferred employee whilst employed by the transferor —

(a)	was in the course of being heard or investigated by a committee of the transferor acting under due authority; or
(b)	had been heard or investigated by a committee of the transferor acting under due authority but no order, ruling or direction had been made,

that committee must complete the hearing or investigation and make such order, ruling or direction as it could have made under the authority vested in it before that date, and that order, ruling or direction is to be regarded as an order, ruling or direction of the Corporation.

(5) Until such time as conditions of employment are drawn up by the Corporation for the transferred employees, every transferred employee is to be regarded as being employed by the Corporation on the same conditions of employment applicable to the employee on the eve of the transfer date as the transferor.

(6) Any condition of employment relating to the length of service with the Corporation must recognise the length of service of the employees so transferred while in the employment of the transferor (including any previous service of the employees taken to be service with the transferor) to be service with the Corporation.

Transfer of records

40. From the transfer date, every record, or part of any record, of the transferor that relates to —

(a)	any assets or liabilities transferred to the Corporation under section 37; or
(b)	any transferring employee,

becomes the record of the Corporation.

Confirmation of undertaking transferred

41.—(1) For the purposes of determining the undertaking to be transferred to the Corporation under this Part, the Minister and the Minister charged with the responsibility for the transferor must, before the transfer date, after consulting the transferor and the Corporation, jointly specify the assets and liabilities of the transferor that relate to the functions of the Industrial Properties Group which must not be transferred to the Corporation under this Part.

(2) If any dispute arises —

(a)	as to whether an asset or a liability, or an employee or a record is transferred under section 37, 38 or 40; or
(b)	as to whether any, or any part of any, contract or document relates to an asset or a liability, or an employee or a record, transferred under section 37, 38 or 40,

the Minister for Finance may determine the matter and is to provide the concerned parties with written notice of that determination.

(3) The determination of the Minister for Finance under subsection (2) is final and binding on the transferor and the Corporation.”.

Repeal of section 64

6. Section 64 of the principal Act is repealed.

Consequential amendments to other Acts

7.—(1) Section 33(6) of the Housing and Development Act (Cap. 129, 2004 Ed.) is amended by inserting, immediately after the words “Part IV of the Jurong Town Corporation Act (Cap. 150)”, the words “as in force before the date of commencement of section 5 of the Jurong Town Corporation (Amendment) Act 2017”.

(2) Section 33 of the Residential Property Act (Cap. 274, 2009 Ed.) is amended —

(a)	by deleting the words “or Part IV of the Jurong Town Corporation Act (Cap. 150)” in paragraph (g); and
(b)	by deleting the words “or the Jurong Town Corporation, as the case may be,” in paragraph (g)(i).

(3) The Town Councils Act (Cap. 329A, 2000 Ed.) is amended —

(a)	by deleting the definition of “industrial property” in section 2(1);
(b)	by inserting the word “and” at the end of section 2(2)(a);
(c)	by deleting paragraph (b) of section 2(2); and
(d)	by deleting the words “and industrial property” in section 19(2)(a)(i).

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