Charting the relationship between Ng Boon Gay and Cecilia Sue

20 November, 2012

When asked how much they were in love, he said he had told her then that they shouldn’t be “falling deeper and deeper” in love because they were both married.

Ex-CNB director Ng Boon Gay took the stand a second time in his corruption trial, revealing more details about his alleged three-year extramarital affair with former IT executive Cecilia Sue.

He said he would sometimes ask him to “grade the scale of my love towards her” – to which he would usually give a “six or seven”.

“I told her that I did love her but not fully because I was married,” Ng was quoted by local media as saying. He also added that Sue had asked him at one point if he would ever leave his wife to be with her.

“She said that had we known each other earlier, maybe we could have been together,” he said.

The defence then asked if Sue ever made use of their relationship to ask for a favour – Ng said no. He also denied demanding sex from Sue in exchange for favours.

On the 11^th day of the sex-for-contracts trial, which is scheduled for 18 days, Ng, 46, maintained that there was no conflict of interest despite his affair with Sue, 36.

He insisted that he had done nothing wrong with regard to the two IT contracts awarded when he was CNB’s Director, as Sue was not the main contractor involved. The CNB only deals with the main contractors, and who these main contractors hired was irrelevant, he explained.

Ng claimed he had no idea Sue was a sub-vendor for one of the IT contracts CNB had awarded to; he only knew her job involved government agencies. She didn’t discuss any of her projects with him, he added.

But Ng acknowledged later that “on hindsight, there could have been perceived conflict (of interest)” and admitted he should have “withdrawn myself from the procurement process”.

Pressured by CPIB to plead guilty?

Ng on Tuesday also accused Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) deputy director of investigations Teng Khee Fatt of pressuring him in a “wholly inappropriate”, “appalling and unacceptable” way to admit to corruption.

Ng had earlier gone to CPIB for his statements to be taken - three times, all of which were recorded by Teng.

At his final session on Mar 9, Teng allegedly told Ng that he would proceed with one charge, hold the hearing "in-camera to reduce media publicity", "redact the names of persons concerned" and not ask for a deterrent sentence, if Ng chooses to plead guilty.

"On the other hand, if I were to reject the offer, he said he will throw everything at me, drag out all parties and families through the mud, reveal the names of all involved" and expose them to media publicity, local media quoted Ng as saying.

He added that he felt Teng was capitalising on both the “tremendous stress from the media scrutiny and the death of my father” to have him admit to something he did not do.

The court was also told that Ng later sent a complaint letter through his lawyers to the Attorney-General's Chambers, which replied on Apr 25 to state that his claims were unfounded.

The trial continues.