Sin Fong owners insist: MOP100m was in fact a donation

The management committee of the collapsed Sin Fong Garden has issued an open letter to state once again that the reconstruction fund of MOP100 million was indeed a donation made by the Jiangmen Communal Society.
In the letter, the management committee revealed that, in the first place, the communal society agreed to make the donation and claimed that the money was ready for withdrawal or transfer.
After commencement of the reconstruction, the communal society retreated and said it would pay as per the progress, which the management committee accepted on trust. So far, the management committee has only received MOP5.12 million from the communal society.
With no money coming in and the reconstruction still in progress, the management committee asked, “who should be shivering in fright now?”
The comment was in reference to the defense made by the Jiangmen Communal Society, which said earlier this week that “helping is an act of goodwill [and the help seekers] should not make the good-doers shiver in fright.”
The Sin Fong owners also pointed out that it has invited the Jiangmen association to be part of an urgent meeting. The latter declined to participate.
Meanwhile, local Chinese media outlet All About Macau gained access to the agreement made between the management committee and the communal society. The agreement specifies that the sum of money is a donation to the management committee.
Recently, the Jiangmen association reiterated that the sum of money was an “advance payment”, similar to a loan that has to be repaid under certain conditions.
However, in the preamble to the agreement, it was stated that the “Jiangmen Communal Society […] out of the love for China and for Macau […] decides in April 2014 to support the reconstruction of Sin Fong Garden and declares to subsidize in part the cost of reconstruction.”
In Article 2, the society stated that it “agrees to donate the cost of reconstruction […] to a maximum of MOP100 million, which approximately equates to 60% of the cost that should be raised by the owners.”
Article 4 of the agreement states that the society’s donation is counted against the amount the management committee successfully raises, meaning that the Jiangmen association will bear the outstanding proportion of the cost at the ceiling of MOP100 million. AL