Ex-NTUC FairPrice team leaders charged with taking about $523k in bribes from fish suppliers

SINGAPORE - To help further the business interests of fish suppliers to the supermarket chain, a senior team leader at NTUC FairPrice Co-operative allegedly conspired with a colleague to obtain bribes from them.

Lim Kian Kok, 46, is said to have worked together with another team leader, See Hock Lam, 69, and purportedly obtained gratification of about $523,000 between 2013 and 2020.

The two Singaporeans were charged in court on Friday (May 6) under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Lim faces 34 charges while See faces 31.

Apart from his alleged acts of conspiring with See, Lim is also accused of corruptly obtaining gratification of about $28,300 from other individuals in the fish supply business in 2020.

Three other Singaporean men were also charged in relation to the offences on Friday.

Chew Kim Hwee, 47, who was the director of Fish Vision Agro-tech, faces two corruption charges of allegedly giving Lim $26,900 in bribes in 2020.

[[nid:551336]]

Heah Han Huat, 65, and Ng Keng Meng, 57, were dealt eight corruption charges each for corruptly giving Lim gratification from 2013 to 2020.

Heah, the sole proprietor of Ocean Trust Trading, had allegedly given Lim $43,500 and Ng, a partner of Nam Soon Sin Kee & Co, had allegedly given Lim $217,500.

In a statement about the alleged offences on Friday, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau advised companies to put in place robust procedures in areas such as procurement and internal audit to avoid falling victim to corrupt acts by their employees.

The bureau also urged companies to obtain certification under the Singapore Standard ISO 37001 - Anti-Bribery Management Systems, which is designed to help companies implement or enhance an anti-bribery management system to reduce corporate risk and costs related to bribery.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction. 

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.