Sales manager takes stand in ex—SCDF chief’s trial

SINGAPORE: A sales manager for Nimrod Engineering said he did not detect any corruption while preparing the submissions for a tender that was called by the Singapore Civil Defence Force in 2011.

Mr Lee Yong Chin, who took the stand on Tuesday —— the second day of the sex—for—contracts case involving former SCDF chief Peter Lim —— is the prosecution’s second witness.

Lee had prepared and signed off on the documents that were submitted for the tender.

The tender —— which called for bids to supply Radiation Portal Monitors —— is at the centre of the trial, with the prosecution alleging that Nimrod Engineering obtained the information about the tender from the former SCDF chief even before it was made public.

52—year—old Lim is accused of obtaining oral sex from Ms Pang Chor Mui, a general manager of Nimrod Engineering, at a carpark in Stadium Walk in May 2010 in exchange for advancing her company’s business interests with the SCDF.

But Mr Lee told the court he did not believe any employee of Nimrod Engineering had received any insider information with regard to the tender details and specifications, as these only became available when the tender was made public on 6 April 2011.

However, these specifications were only forwarded to Mr Lee’s colleague, business development manager Tan Peng Leng, on 21 April.

Defence Counsel Hamidul Haq then pointed out that it would be in Nimrod Engineering’s interest to have sent the information earlier.

But Mr Lee said he had not received any instruction from Ms Pang, whom he reports to, to proceed, even though he alerted her to the tender around the time it was first published.

It was revealed that the contract, if Nimrod had won the tender, would have been worth about S$400,000.

Ms Pang is expected to take the stand as the prosecution’s witness later.

The court also heard that the tender, which closed on 3 May 2011, was cancelled in October the same year in order for SCDF to review its technical specifications.

A re—tender was called by SCDF later that year, and Nimrod Engineering also submitted a bid.

— CNA/al