SINGAPORE - A former vice-president at a consultancy firm was fined $1,800 for sharing restricted information linked to tenders relating to a joint training facility for the Singapore Police Force and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).
CPG Consultants, after securing a contract with the Ministry of Home Affairs, received information that was meant to be kept secure. But Gerald Lim Lee Meng shared it with Yap Tin Foo, who was then the managing director of Starburst Engineering, which specialises in the design of firearms-training facilities.
Lim, 56, who has since resigned from CPG Consultants, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to an offence under the Official Secrets Act. Yap, 58, is no longer with Starburst Engineering and was charged with graft in August 2022. His case is pending.
The project involved the Home Team Tactical Centre (HTTC), a joint training facility for the police and SCDF. Phase 1 of the project was completed in July 2015. For Phase 2A, which cost $236 million, CPG was awarded the building consultancy contract on Aug 4, 2016.
Out of 10 companies which tendered to be CPG’s main contractor, eight listed Starburst as their range specialist sub-contractor. One of them, China Construction, was selected as the main contractor in 2019.
The prosecution told the court that for the HTTC Phase 2A project, the Development Planning Committee (DPC) members who approved its funding were the Minister for Home Affairs, the Minister for Health and the Minister for Finance. DPC figures in the documents entrusted to CPG were restricted information and were not to be revealed to any of the contractors, including Starburst.
On July 30, 2019, Lim passed Yap a hard copy of the documents during a meeting between CPG’s project team and Starburst.
Lim’s offence came to light when the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau started its probe against Yap. Hard copies of several restricted documents were found in Yap’s possession during a search of Starburst’s office on Nov 12, 2020. The documents contained a comparative analysis of the bids received for the HTTC Phase 2A project.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Hsiao Tien had urged the court to sentence Lim to the maximum fine of $2,000, arguing that the DPC information contained approved funding figures which could have guided the recipient’s company in its pricing strategy for future government contracts.
She added: “The documents also contained comparative analysis of main contractors’ bids, and their quoted prices for various components. This was confidential price information which could have prejudiced a contractor’s interest, had the information been obtained by a competitor.”
For breaking the law under the Official Secrets Act, an offender can be jailed for up to two years and fined up to $2,000.
