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The Straits Times

Thursday, Aug 29, 2013


SINGAPORE - The National Parks Board (NParks) assistant director behind the controversial purchase of 26 Brompton bicycles has been charged with providing false information to government officials.

Bernard Lim Yong Soon, 42, allegedly told Ministry of National Development (MND) officials that he did not have a personal relationship with Lawrence Lim Chun How, a director of BikeHop Singapore that won the contract to supply NParks with Brompton bikes.

Bernard Lim was also charged in a district court on Thursday morning with abetting Lawrence Lim to lie about their friendship to MND officials conducting an internal audit on the tender.

The NParks' purchase of 26 Brompton bikes for $2,200 each from BikeHop came under scrutiny for irregularities in the tender process. The MND suspended Lim and referred the case to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau last July. His case will be heard again on Sept 27. Those guilty of providing false information to a public servant face up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $5,000, or both.

high salary prevents corruption yah?

http://www.salarysingapore.com/civil-ser...apore.html

When high salary becoming a norm, it becomes an entitlement. It will not stop anyone for doing wrong.

Quote:Bernard Lim Yong Soon, 42, allegedly told Ministry of National Development (MND) officials that he did not have a personal relationship with Lawrence Lim Chun How, a director of BikeHop Singapore that won the contract to supply NParks with Brompton bikes.

Bernard Lim was also charged in a district court on Thursday morning with abetting Lawrence Lim to lie about their friendship to MND officials conducting an internal audit on the tender.

Although this case is rather clear cut, the person who approved the purchase knew the supplier ahead and they are friends.
But, in the daily procurement activities for most organisation, the purchasers will normally know the suppliers very well after numerous transactions and can be considered as friends or become friends, I wonder how the line should be drawn.

i guess first he lied during the internal audit - integrity issue already
2nd i dun believe brompton bike quotation is the cheapest among the minimum 3 vendors quotations tender exercise
not sure whether this is practised in the govt sector

I've actually had a chance to try out the chair when I went to AGC around the time when they replaced the chairs some years back, it's very very comfortable cannot describe the feeling but I can say it's like being on an airplane about to get green light for take off go some place nice for a holiday that kind of relaxed feeling.

But I wonder whether if it's necessary. Not suggesting any wrong doing but it's after all an office chair and these are civil servants, isn't it implied that public servants should spend money frugally?

http://www.tremeritus.com/2012/08/24/agc...er-chairs/

This case is clearly not getting the best value for the job, unlike value-investing. The bike spec is more like a luxury item, like buying a Ferrari for daily travel. I did a search online and there are many other good foldies at half the price! Kudos to mnd for investigating the case.

Bromptons are like Ferraris? Not in a million years. Brompton have brakes are quite crappy, the gear shifting is much to be desired.
It is a bike with low specification, especially those entry 2+K ones. They sell because they are very compact when folded, much smaller than all if not most folding bikes.

The only reason I can think of why bikes are so expensive and motivation to buy them is the budget these departments get. Am guessing probably there was excess budget for the year they couldn't carry it forward to the next so they had to spend it.

The link between the cost of the bikes and also whether bikehop had any prior inside info about whether if there was indeed any such excess dept budget, now that's the biggie.

Heard excess budget is a common sight in many gov't statboards etc, TRUE?