CSI attempt: nParks Brompton procurement process ended up with a dodgy winning bidder!

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Brompton bikes saga: Senior NParks official charged in court






National Parks Board (NParks) Assistant Director Bernard Lim Yong Soon. Photo: Ernest Chua









National Parks Board Assistant Director Bernard Lim Yong Soon charged for giving false information to an MND internal auditor

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By Amir Hussain

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4 hours 23 min ago
SINGAPORE — National Parks Board (NParks) Assistant Director Bernard Lim Yong Soon, who was last year investigated by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) for his involvement in the procurement of 26 Brompton bicycles, was this morning (Aug 29) charged in court with one count of knowingly giving false information to public servants under Section 182 of the Penal Code.
He was also charged with one count of abetting the same offence, by instigating Lawrence Lim Chun How, a Director of Bikehop Singapore Private Limited, to also knowingly provide false information to public servants.

According to court documents, on July 18 last year, Bernard Lim, 41, allegedly told the Ministry of National Development (MND) Internal Audit Unit’s (IAU) Deputy Director Stacey Tee Hwee Teng and IAU Assistant Director Tan Choon Lin, as well as MND’s Senior Director of Corporate Development Felix Loh Chee Wai, that he did not have a personal relationship with Lawrence Lim.
Bernard Lim allegedly lied to the MND officers that the first time he had met Lawrence Lim was at a meeting to discuss the delay by Bikehop in the delivery of a batch of Brompton bicycles to the NParks, knowing that by doing so, the MND officers would omit to investigate his personal relationship with Lawrence Lim in the course of the IAU’s internal investigations into NParks’ procurement of the 26 Brompton bicycles from Bikehop.
And at a hawker centre along Shunfu road sometime between June to July last year, Bernard Lim also allegedly instigated Lawrence Lim to provide the same false information to the above two MND IAU officers, thereby abetting in the commission of the same offence.
For the offence of giving false information to a public servant with the intention or knowledge that it would likely cause the public servant to omit anything which the public servant ought not to do or to omit if the true state of facts were given, Bernard faces up to one year in jail or a fine of up to S$5,000, or both.
For abetting the offence to be committed, under the second charge, he faces the same penalty as per the offence.
The case will be mentioned in court again on Sept 27.

 

[Asakura]

since there is so many scandals and corruption cases

i hope this one breaks the camel's back

so.............pay millions still got corruption?

 

[Asakura]

Why drag so long then charged?

What took CPIB so long to investigate this??? Huh??

y u nv go do? u can do within 1 day. why u no do! why!

 

[Immortal]

Up for legendary TS.

Well done.

 

[FredTan76]

The 3 clause of e tender requiring a very specific:
- 13 to 15kg weight,
- ONLY 6 gear &
- ONLY 16inch
is a clear indication that corruption is involved.

Why did KBW chose to ignore this after this was highlighted to him.

No one from NPark should make such a specific & useless requirement.
Why not ask for smaller than 16"?
Why not ask for less than 15kg?
Why not ask for >6 gear?

Anyone like KBW who fail to see this during initial investigation & come out denying there's corruption are either really stupid OR trying to cover up

 

[Jwee85]

TS who started all this CSI: Thank you

Yes....it only came to light only because someone took the extra effort to CSI the relationship.
Thank you for the effort.
This charging of Bernard is case in point that paper cannot cover fire.

 

[tekster]

now next question is, this figure isn't a big sum of money. why would he wanna do such a thing just for $50k?

 

[Purplestars]

50K is alot for a small time company. That's more than the annual salary of many edmwers! Summore he did it in a "clean" and "legit" way that was the "proper channel". Too bad it blew up and he got exposed.

 

[tlkchew]

The 3 clause of e tender requiring a very specific:
- 13 to 15kg weight,
- ONLY 6 gear &
- ONLY 16inch
is a clear indication that corruption is involved.

Why did KBW chose to ignore this after this was highlighted to him.

No one from NPark should make such a specific & useless requirement.
Why not ask for smaller than 16"?
Why not ask for less than 15kg?
Why not ask for >6 gear?

Anyone like KBW who fail to see this during initial investigation & come out denying there's corruption are either really stupid OR trying to cover up

You know i know can already.... still need to ask...

 

[vj_style]

Well done TS and EDMW CSI team!

 

[thezoo]

The small fish get whacked, everyone satisfied

 

[jonesftw]

From https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...25332.125584034177665&type=1&relevant_count=1

 

[algieba]

This case overshadowed by CHC case. Not sure if intentional or coincidental.

 

[dongdong88]

From https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...25332.125584034177665&type=1&relevant_count=1

So happy. High chance acquitted?

 

[jonesftw]

 

[sadistical]

he looks happy though..

 

[Xyresic]

TS leecruited by cpib riao?

 

[Xyresic]

MOST ******* EPIC GENIUS CSI IN THE HISTORY OF EDMW

SATKI MAX

 

[BHills]

So happy. High chance acquitted?

Because he is not charged for corruption or anything inappropriate in the bidding.

He is only charged for a relatively minor offense of "lying to the auditors" during investigation about his personal relationship with the owner of the company which won the bid.

PAP Government are also happy because it is officially not another corruption case in the government but just a case of personal honesty in a "minor" matter.

 

[BHills]

The 3 clause of e tender requiring a very specific:
- 13 to 15kg weight,
- ONLY 6 gear &
- ONLY 16inch
is a clear indication that corruption is involved.

Why did KBW chose to ignore this after this was highlighted to him.

No one from NPark should make such a specific & useless requirement.
Why not ask for smaller than 16"?
Why not ask for less than 15kg?
Why not ask for >6 gear?

Anyone like KBW who fail to see this during initial investigation & come out denying there's corruption are either really stupid OR trying to cover up

Frankly, the quality of Singapore PAP government ministers is very low.

Can only score well in written academic examinations but not street smart or intelligent in dealing with real life issues.

From those very specific requirements (without reasonable justification), the whole tender is obviously rigged with the intention that only a certain brand and model qualifies.

Furthermore, from what I read, the usual Singapore distributor of Brompton bikes has a slightly lower price to any walk-in customer for that particular model. If buy in bulk (over 20 bikes), definitely can get cheaper.

Instead of immediately ordering an investigation, our highly paid ministers' first reaction was to jump to the defense of the purchase and tender.

It was only after more fishy smell of the tender was uncovered by netizens that an investigation was ordered by the PAP government.

Even though it is difficult to find evidence and prove that he has financially benefited from the deal, there is sufficient reasonable circumstantial evidence for his intention to rig the tender.

However, I'm not sure that there is any law to punish a person for his intention to rig a public tender without gaining from it.

There are only laws to punish a person for corruption (i.e. financially gained from it). However, the investigators are unable to find sufficient evidence that he had benefited financially from it. ("Unable to find" could mean that he had actually financially benefited from it but just that the investigators were not capable enough to find the evidence. for e.g. if tender winner had passed a few hundreds of dollars or $1-2K to him in cash notes as kopi money).

So the most that can be done is to charge him for lying his personal relationship with the tender winner and for National Parks to sack him for his rigging of the tender.