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Sla Hit By $12m Fraud Involving Two Senior Staff

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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/sin...1083872/1/.html

SINGAPORE : The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) has been hit by a S$12 million fraud case involving two of its senior staff.

40-year-old Koh Seah Wee, a deputy director with SLA's Technology and Infrastructure Department, faces 249 charges of cheating while a second suspect, Christopher Lim Chai Meng, a manager in the same department, is currently helping the police with investigations.

The SLA, a statutory board under the Law Ministry, uncovered the fraud in June this year.

Investigations showed that a number of irregular payments in its Technology and Infrastructure Department took place between January 2008 and March 2010, worth nearly S$12 million.

SLA posts its tenders for IT maintenance services on the government procurement website.

According to the charges against Koh, he had conspired with two others - Lim Chai Meng and Ho Yen Teck - to award the IT maintenance contracts to firms which did not deliver the services.

However, SLA paid the firms which have turned out to be fictitious. Amounts paid ranged from $2,600 to $60,000.

As deputy director of SLA's Technology and Infrastructure Department, Koh had the authority to approve payments to the firms.

Koh also faces several charges of using his ill-gotten gains to buy cars and properties.

The charges said that Koh had used the money to pay for a Lamborghini, Mercedes - cars, acquire property at Axis@Siglap along East Coast Terrace, and purchase various unit trusts.

The authorities have so far recovered cash and assets worth about $10 million from Koh.

Koh was charged on June 25, and he is being defended by lawyer Ravinderpal Singh. His case will be mentioned again on October 19.

Koh is now in remand as he has not been able to raise the S$1.5 million bail offered to him.

Giving details of Koh and Lim's employment with the SLA, a spokesman told Channel NewsAsia that they were deployed to SLA in March 2007 and July 2006 respectively.

Koh was posted back to the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) in March this year where he resigned on June 1.

Lim returned to IDA on 1 May 2010, and then went on no-pay leave. He has since been suspended from duty.

According to a joint statement from the SLA and the Law Ministry, SLA had finance and procurement processes in accordance with government guidelines.

However, the two SLA officers were said to have conspired with each other and the business entities involved, which enabled them to circumvent the checks and balances.

The Law Ministry set up an independent review panel following the matter in June, and SLA has since implemented the panel's recommendations to improve its tender system, such as requiring an officer from a different department to verify the request to call a quotation.

It has also reduced the financial limit for approval of financial transactions by certain levels of officers.

SLA said disciplinary investigations have commenced in respect of two officers whose oversight might have allowed the fraud to take place undetected.

These investigations are in progress, and disciplinary action will be taken, if and where found appropriate.

SLA added that it did not go public any earlier as police investigations including the tracing of assets were on-going.

Investigations against Koh are only now largely completed and another tranche of charges was tendered against Koh in court earlier Tuesday morning, and this is the first appropriate opportunity for SLA to inform the public of the case. - CNA

 

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The SLA men and their expensive tastes

But Koh Seah Wee and Christopher Lim Chai Meng's supposed actions have now made them notorious.

Both men were named by the SLA yesterday as being suspected of having conspired to cheat SLA of $11.8 million, by awarding fictitious IT maintenance service contracts to 10 companies set up by their friends.

Koh has been charged with 249 counts of cheating and faces jail time and fines, if he is convicted. Lim is assisting the police with their investigations.

Their colleagues at the SLA, who spoke to BT, said the two men were 'meek' and 'docile', and did not share their private lives in the office. They were said to have been really close to each other, spending a lot of time together.

Both were polytechnic graduates made good. They had been seconded to SLA from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) in early 2008 - and allegedly got to work channelling a substantial chunk of SLA's money to themselves very soon after.

Of the $11.8 million they supposedly siphoned off, much was spent on flashy cars and properties.

Koh bought a $1.6 million Lamborghini, which he registered under the name of his wife, Yeing Nyok Sea, 38. He also bought his mother-in-law, Kok A Mui, a $300,000 Mercedes-- coupe.

Lim bought a Ferrari, which he crashed along Nicoll Highway in December 2009 - an accident reported then by The Straits Times. In that report, the Ferrari was described as a 'mangled mess' after it hit a guardrail, then a tree.

An ambulance arrived at the scene at 7.18am, but the driver - named as Lim Chai Meng - was not seriously hurt, other than for some scratches on his arms and forehead.

BT understands that no one in SLA had realised the Ferrari driver was their colleague, as they knew him in the office as Chris Lim.

Both men also took pains to not wear the expensive watches they had bought with their ill-gotten gains to the office.

'They were very subdued, very humble people. There was no indication that they were doing well, materially. They didn't wear branded goods or luxury watches,' an ex-colleague told BT.

The men also spent money on properties - all of which have been seized by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD). Koh is understood to have bought three properties, one of which was Axis@Siglap along East Coast Terrace. Lim bought two properties.

Koh is also understood to have bought jewellery and handbags for his wife, and put some of the money into unit trusts and bank accounts.

Koh is an ultra-marathoner who took part in the 2008 Sundown Marathon, Singapore's inaugural 84km night marathon, and in the Osim Singapore International Triathlon 2009.

SLA, working together with the CAD, has managed to recover some $10 million in cash and assets from its two former employees.

Just about all of the assets bought with the stolen money has been recovered - with the discrepancy in the value being the result of changes to the values of the assets, such as in the case of Lim's Ferrari, which lost value after its crash.

 

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高薪养廉

Quote from TODAY paper (29 Sept) it say A deputy director in the civil service could possible earn in the region of 8k a mth.

I guess 8k is not enough for him to eat

 

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高薪养廉

Quote from TODAY paper (29 Sept) it say A deputy director in the civil service could possible earn in the region of 8k a mth.

I guess 8k is not enough for him to eat

It's more like

高薪滋贪,贪得无厌. A S$1.6 million Lamborghini speaks up this guy greed. What makes him choose to stay in sg and cont looting our tax $$. We shld seriously audit all govt sector...
 

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It's more like

高薪滋贪,贪得无厌. A S$1.6 million Lamborghini speaks up this guy greed. What makes him choose to stay in sg and cont looting our tax $$. We shld seriously audit all govt sector...

I believe we need to do that. I have a friend's friend working as a deputy director is a transport sector (gov) in IT **** rich. Really wonder where he got the $$ to spend million recently in landed property and drive expensive car and doing side business.

 

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高薪养廉

Quote from TODAY paper (29 Sept) it say A deputy director in the civil service could possible earn in the region of 8k a mth.

I guess 8k is not enough for him to eat

He is probably earning more than that based on his age group of 40. 8K for DD is likely for young DD in the age group of early to mid 30s.

 

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It's more like

高薪滋贪,贪得无厌. A S$1.6 million Lamborghini speaks up this guy greed. What makes him choose to stay in sg and cont looting our tax $$. We shld seriously audit all govt sector...

yes they have audits done. Some conclusions are published.

All i can say is that if the internal controls are good, they would have boasted about it...so we have to read between the lines on this. :)

 

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http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2010/09/28/sl...-s11-8-million/

Singaporeans outraged by SLA’s S$11.8 million fraud case

“How could fraud go undetected in a statutory board over a two-year period?”

That’s the common question asked by Yahoo! Fit-To-Post (FTP) users regarding the two senior Singapore Land Authority (SLA) officers who were charged with committing S$11.8 million fraud.

Koh Seah Wee, 40, a deputy director at SLA’s Technology and Infrastructure Department, is facing 249 fraud charges.

Christopher Lim Chai Meng, 37, a manager in the same department, is suspected to have conspired with Koh to cheat SLA.

The pair allegedly rendered false invoices for bogus maintenance contracts in transactions between January 2008 and March 2010, worth S$11.8 million.

Over 130 comments have been left behind by FTP users with the best-rated one by Esther, who wrote, “Yet another case to prove high pay does not guarantee corruption-free leadership.”

Another FTP user Youlahthan also questioned the level of audits and checks in government departments.

“Our government department has so many checks in place and yet such things happened. What’s going on? Have we become too complacent, as to let our guards down? Or have our “elite” become greedy to begin with?” he said.

Lily32sg agreed: “SLA should have a team of audit personnel’s and they are responsible for such failures. The authorities should also check if the entities/vendors that the contracts have been outsourced to have any investments connected to these 2 fellows.”

Another user KRK27 said, “You mean to say SLA auditors just did not notice S$11.8million amiss somewhere? They just go through the bills and invoices and not the physical worksites for inspection.”

News reports say Koh awarded maintenance contracts to various companies and was responsible of approving payments ranging from S$25,000 to S$60,000 without any work being done to fulfil the contracts.

According to The Straits Times, Koh used his “earnings” to buy his wife Yeing Nyok Sea a S$1.6 million Lamborghini and his mum-in-law, Kok A Mui, a $300,000 Mercedes - coupe.

He also invested in property at Axis@Siglap along East Coast Terrace, and well as purchased various unit trusts.

The SLA is a statutory board under the Ministry of Law. Its mission is to optimise land resources for the economic and social development of the country, ensuring the best use of State land and buildings.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, the SLA and the Ministry of Law said cash and assets worth about $10 million have been located and secured so far.

The two officers were said to have conspired with each other and the business entities involved to enable them to circumvent the checks and balances in the processes.

The Law Ministry set up an independent review panel following the matter in June to look into how the irregularities could have taken place.

The Panel was also asked to recommend improvements to SLA’s systems and processes, some of which have already been implemented.

Disciplinary investigations have also been ordered into the actions of two other officers, whose oversight might have allowed the fraud to go undetected.

 

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more head going to roll.

A joke for a day:

OPEN LETTER COFFEE SHOP TALK

From : ChinChaiOne

Dear Prime Minister,

We citizens of Singapore urge you to PLEASE MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.

We DO NOT NEED your help. Every time, you mention HELP, we have to run

for cover!!!

Help the poor? Raise GST!

Help traffic flow? Up ERP!

Help passenger service? Up Bus fare/MRT fare!

Help us get taxi? Raise taxi fare!

Help us get good government? Raise Minister and Civil servant salary!

Everytime YOU WANT TO HELP, we all PAY FOR IT!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU…TOLONG LAH, please, we will HELP OURSELVES, no

need your help liao. We DARE NOT ask for help any more!!!

Sir, most honoured sir, I urge you NOT TO HELP Singapore INVEST also!

Everytime your wife invest, we all lose money! Kao liao, kum siah!

Just let us have a dose of bad governance, like recently the Mat Selamat case, like dat….so far, it is ok, your incompetence, we ACCEPT!

PLEASE DO NOT help us have better security! Wait we all kena PAY FOR IT!!

I believe ALL SINGAPOREANS PREFER NOT TO HAVE CRUTCH MENTALITY!

I think it is ok lah, please just take your salary and enjoy life ok?

Thank you thank you,

I am very chin chai one, any how any how, no need to help oso can one.

Following is a reply from the Prime Minister's Office:

Dear Chin Chai One,

10Q you for your letter. On behalf of the Prime Minister, I am replying to your letter as follows:

As the erected party of Singaporeans, we are here to serve.

We are demon-cratic country, you are master, we gahmen servant, we serve you. You got problems we must help. You say no need our help?

That means you're not Singapore's master. You say you run for cover?

Cannot one, our police will find you..

GST is to help the Gahmen to help yourself. The Gahmen Service Tax is everywhere, you go America also have one, cannot run one.

Traffic very bad, so bad that we have to hold car racing at nite to avoid traffic jam. We believe there is no free lunch like PM's father say before, you use, you must pay, so Every Road Pay..... So you see no ERP cannot one.

Needless to say, passenger service also must pay. The increase in bus fare and MRT and taxi fare are very little already. We foresee world inflation coming: oil, steel, pay of foreign talents, etc, so we have to pay for the service.

You see, many foreign talents come to Singapore . If we don't pay our ministers well, they will go other countries to be their foreign talents. So must raise salary to keep them. If not, Nathan, Shanmugam, Bala etc will go India and work. Khaw will go Malaysia. etc etc. Must keep them. To keep them must pay well.

You are right, any help also must pay.

To help yourself? No, it's illegal. You mean you can build your own MRT? Run your own buses? Drive your Ba-Ong-Chia? Build your own roads?

Seow liao!! Every one help himself then how? No social order lah! Ga ga ask for help, we are here to serve you.

We understand some of you have temporary problem. Don't worry, it is only short term. We must look long term. We must invest long term. Now lose a bit don't cow beh cow boo, long term! Yes, remember. 30 or 50 years later we will own Swiss banks, US banks, UK properties, maybe even South Pole condominiums. We must tighten our seat belt and bite our false teeth. The future very bright. As long as you continue to support the gahmen 30 to 50 years you will see bright future. So Chiang See Tong a bit lah. Also, investing is very complicated business, not easy. We must pay school fee to learn from advanced

countries.

On Selamat's case, we also must learn our lesson. We encourage life-long-learning. I learn whole life time, you learn whole life, Mr Wong Can't Sing also whole life learning. It's actually good. Mr Wong already apologise, don't force a dog to jump over the wall, the wall may collapse. Old dog cannot jump high also.

Selamat's case gives us many lessons. We must be on alert, not too complacent. Now every Singaporean know there can be a terrorist among

us any time. This is the best self defence education !! PM will give Mr Wong another salary increment for that.

Also now we merge the prisons and detention centre, more space will be available now. We will build it like another IR, Integrated Retention

- so those don't want our service and thinking of doing illegal service will go there. We will pass a new law too, the expenses for stay in that IR will be deducted from your CPF money.

Remember we must be grateful to people who help us -- and pay.

I hope I have explained the situation and give you the message clearly.... If you still need help, please call my handphone: 9990-6767 9990-6767, it's toll-free.

By the way, Mr Chin Chai One, our pioneer Toh Chin Chai already toh long ago. So if you choose to be Chin Chin Chai Chai, you will also

Toh.

10Q you again,

Reguards,

Ah Beng

Grassrude secretary

Edited by bepgof
 

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