On the AIM review by MND, SMU Assistant Professor of Law Eugene Tan pointed out that the town council’s IT system was out-of-date at that point and that any glitches would have greatly affected the functioning of the town council and the residents’ lives. These, in turn, would have resulted in the PAP, which had been administering the town councils, paying a heavy price. Assistant Prof Tan added that while people saw AIM as the sole bidder and thought it must have benefited from this transaction, this was not so. Five companies had been invited to tender but only AIM made a formal submission. This clearly showed that the software had no value and might even have been a loss-making product. However, AIM had no choice but to bid for the project to prevent the PAP-run town councils from paying a political price.