Brompton bicycle trial: Officer changed date he met supplier

BROMPTON BICYCLE TRIAL 

A NATIONAL Parks Board (NParks) assistant director accused of lying to auditors told them he could have "wrongly" remembered the date when he first met the director of a bicycle supply firm, a court heard on Thursday.

Bernard Lim Yong Soon originally told them he met Bikehop director Lawrence Lim Chun How on March 16, 2012. But a day after he was questioned, he clarified that it was March 6 - a 10-day difference.

This was the testimony of Ministry of National Development (MND) senior director Felix Loh Chee Wai on Thursday, the third day of Lim's trial.

The NParks officer, 42, allegedly tipped off the Bikehop director about the tender, which saw his company being paid $57,200 in a deal to provide 26 Brompton bicycles.

Lim is accused of lying to Mr Loh and two MND colleagues by saying he and Mr Lawrence Lim did not share a personal relationship prior to the January 2012 tender, and instigating Mr Lawrence Lim to perpetuate the lie.

The latter testified on Tuesday that they had actually first met at a social event in September or October 2011.

Recounting what happened during the one-hour interview on July 18, 2012, Mr Loh said he initially had "no reason to doubt" Lim's claim that the two men had first met to discuss a delay in the delivery of a batch of the foldable bikes. Lim had said it was a "coincidence" that the Bikehop bid - the only one put in - was "spot on" with the allocated budget.

But after considering online speculation about their relationship and the prompt awarding of the contract to Bikehop after a five-day window had closed, Mr Loh and two colleagues asked Lim to confirm his position.

On July 19, Lim told them he first met Mr Lawrence Lim when the first batch of bikes was delivered to NParks, Mr Loh told the court yesterday.

The next day, the Bikehop director separately told the MND the two men actually knew each other before the tender - something he had previously denied, Mr Loh added.

Cross-examining Mr Loh, defence lawyer Lawrence Ang said many of the 63 questions prepared for the interview were "irrelevant" to the MND's internal inquiry, which began after a newspaper report on June 22, 2012.

As an example, Mr Ang cited a mention in the interview notes of Lim's credit card spending, which he said the auditors brought up to "embarrass" him. Mr Ang also argued that Lim had not explicitly told them that he did not have a prior personal relationship with Mr Lawrence Lim.

"It was not just an audit you were doing," said Mr Ang. "You went beyond what you were tasked to do, to investigate (Lim)."

But Mr Loh said the interview had been a "dynamic situation", adding that all he wanted was to establish if there had been any bias in the award of the tender. He said: "My priority during the interview was to find out whether the two men knew each other before the tender."

Mr Loh's cross-examination continued on Friday.

No corruption charges have been brought against Lim. But if convicted of giving false information to public servants, he could be jailed for up to a year, fined up to $5,000, or both.

pohian@sph.com.sg

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