Former CNB chief insists he did not know tender involved ex—lover’s firm

SINGAPORE: Former Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) chief Ng Boon Gay continued to insist on his third day in court that he did not know Ms Cecilia Sue’s company was involved in the IT contract CNB awarded.

46—year—old Ng is accused of forcing former IT sales executive Ms Sue to perform oral sex on him in exchange for helping to further her employers’ business interests.

Ng Boon Gay maintained throughout the trial that he did not know "HDS" meant "Hitachi Data Systems".

HDS was one of Ms Sue’s former employers.

Ng told the court on Tuesday that he had approved a pre—procurement paper that had the letters "HDS".

However, he said he did not know at that point in time that the acronyms referred to Hitachi Data Systems.

This prompted the prosecution to ask Ng on Wednesday how it was possible for him and Ms Sue to have a three—year—long affair without her using the term "HDS".

Ng responded by saying that Ms Sue used the words "my office" and never referred to her employer in full as "Hitachi Data Systems".

After questioning Ng then said she only referred to her employer as "Hitachi".

The prosecution asked Ng what he thought "HDS" meant, to which he replied either "Hard Disk Server" or "Hard Drive Server".

An email sent to Ng from Ms Sue bearing both the acronym of Hitachi as well as the company’s full name was then brought up by the prosecution, who said that Ng would have at least suspected that "HDS" meant "Hitachi Data Systems".

The former CNB chief disagreed.

He also denied knowing Ms Sue’s involvement in the projects that were approved by him.

Ms Sue had previously testified in court saying she told Ng that she managed to get a discount for CNB with regards to a project she was working on, and added that Ng had thanked her.

Ng said that he could neither recall nor confirm whether the conversation took place.

The prosecution also argued that there was an ’actual’ conflict of interest when Ng approved IT contracts that involved the firm Ms Sue worked for.

Ng however dismissed the notion saying that Ms Sue’s employer was only a sub—vendor at that time.

The prosecution then countered saying that by the second tender Ng had full knowledge that Hitachi was involved in the project and hence, Ms Sue as well. Yet Ng did not recuse himself from the approval process.

Ng then insisted that there was no conflict of interest and thus, no reason to excuse himself.

The defence told the court at the end of the hearing that they would be calling Miss Sharon Yen from Oracle to testify as their last witness.

This is expected to happen on Friday.

The trial continues.

— CNA/jc