I did not demand sex in exchange for favours: Ng Boon Gay

SINGAPORE: More details about the three—year affair between former Central Narcotics Bureau chief, Ng Boon Gay, and Ms Cecilia Sue emerged in court on Tuesday morning during his corruption trial.

Ng is accused of forcing 36—year—old Ms Sue, a former IT sales executive, to provide oral sex in exchange for allegedly helping further her employers’ business interests.

On his second day on the stand, the 46—year—old told the court he and Ms Sue often exchanged explicit and sexual messages over the phone.

Referring to Ms Sue’s statements to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), the defence led by Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng, said Ms Sue had talked about love and sacrifice.

Ng said Ms Sue would ask him from time to time how much he loved her and made him rate his love for her, on a scale of one to 10. He said he usually gave her a six or a seven.

SC Tan asked if Ms Sue ever mentioned divorcing her husband. Ng said Ms Sue had asked whether he would leave his wife for her.

The senior counsel then asked if Ms Sue ever made use of her relationship to ask for a favour, to which, Ng said no.

When asked if he ever demanded sex from Ms Sue in exchange for a favour from him, Ng also denied it.

During questioning, Ng also shed light on the procurement processes at CNB.

He explained that even though he was the approving officer, he never had any role to play in the awarding of tenders.

Ng said he would follow the recommendations of the evaluation committee, which would in turn follow suggestions by the IT team.

He said this was the case as he had no expertise in the IT area.

In the case where he disapproved any proposal by his team, Ng said he had to state the reasons for doing so.

Ng also said he had no idea that Ms Sue was a sub—vendor for one of the IT contracts.

A key contention during the trial was conflict of interest.

The court heard that when Ng joined CNB in February 2010, Ms Sue was working for Hitachi Data Systems. He said there was no contract business dealings between CNB and Hitachi, hence no conflict of interest.

Ng insisted there was no conflict of interest for a contract he awarded on March 2, 2011 where Hitachi was the sub—contractor.

He explained that from CNB’s perspective, the dealings were with the main contractors and who the main contractors hired was irrelevant.

In that same vein, SC Tan asked if there was a conflict of interest when he continued his relationship with Ms Sue even though he was heading CNB at that time. Ng said no.

The two—hour long session also revealed that Ng had sent a complaint letter through his lawyers to the Attorney—General’s Chambers. This was because he felt that the manner in which CPIB’s Deputy Director Teng Khee Fatt questioned him was "unacceptable".

Ng had gone to CPIB for his statements to be taken down three times. All statements were recorded by Mr Teng.

On the third occasion on March 9, 2012, Ng said Mr Teng used plea bargaining on him.

Plea bargaining results in an agreement between the prosecutor and defendant, where the defendant agrees to plead guilty without a trial. In return, the prosecutor agrees to dismiss certain charges or make favourable sentence recommendations to the court.

Ng said Mr Teng pressurised him into pleading guilty, in return for the case to be heard in—camera and for prosecution to not ask for a deterrent sentence. But Ng felt that Mr Teng was capitalising on the pressure on him to force him into admitting something he said he did not do.

So on March 16, Ng’s lawyers sent a complaint to the AGC. The AGC replied on April 25, saying Ng’s claim was unfounded.

The trial continues.

—CNA/ac/sf