This Colonel is going to jail...
And, you thought all officers were cream of the crop?
Firms say bids used by SAF officer were fakes
Two companies insisted they never knew about repair projects, and their supposed quotations were on outdated letterheads
By Elena Chong
A SINGAPORE Armed Forces lieutenant-colonel went on trial yesterday for trying to deceive the SAF by submitting fake quotations for repair works, prepared by a maintenance contractor.
Facing 10 charges, Lt-Col Ong is accused of using false documents to mislead the SAF. -- STEVEN LEE
The contractor, Ong Chye Tab, was sentenced to a year's jail two months ago for corruption.
The man said to be his partner in the scam, Lt-Col Ong Beng Leong, 43, is accused of knowingly using false bids from Precise Development and Gin Huat Company for repair works in the training areas under his command in Lim Chu Kang.
Yesterday, the bosses of Precise Development and Gin Huat told the court that they had neither submitted the bids nor even known about the projects, totalling about $174,000.
The bids were made on outdated letterheads they had stopped using years ago.
The lieutenant-colonel, who faces 10 charges of using false documents to mislead the SAF, was the commanding officer of the Training Resource Management Centre when the offences were allegedly committed between January and February 2001.
Fifty-seven other similar charges have been stood down.
Under SAF rules, three independent quotations were required before the accused could approve any maintenance works.
Yesterday, Mr Neo Wee Beng, 48, a partner of Gin Huat, said the invoices that were supposedly submitted by his company for site and track improvement works amounting to $52,450 were on letterheads the company had not used in 10 years.
In fact, Gin Huat was involved only in the rental of heavy equipment in 2001.
Similarly, the managing director for Precise Development, Mr Peh Soon Li, 47, said that his company's letterheads have all borne an ISO logo since 1996.
None of the bids that his company had supposedly submitted bore such a logo.
Mr Peh also said that his company's dealings with SAF in 2001 involved contracts above $1 million, and the company would not take part in projects worth less than $20,000.
Both men said they had not authorised Ong Chye Tab, 62, who was the sole proprietor of Sin Hiaptat Construction, to use their companies or letterheads to submit the quotations.
Later, the contractor's former secretary, Khoo Swee Im, 52, who was jailed four months for forgery in September, took the stand to testify that she had prepared the documents.
Ong Chye Tab will take the stand today when the trial continues before district judge Toh Yung Cheong.
OMG.....