Man fined $80K for bribery

Man fined $80K for bribery
By Elena Chong, Courts Correspondent


Chia Chor Yam (pictured), 54, admitted to three of 14 charges of giving a total of $20,300 in bribes to Mr Lim Seng Ping, 54, of eLpedia. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW

A BUSINESSMAN who gave bribes of almost $103,000 to a former officer of a National Library Board subsidiary was fined a total of $80,000 on Tuesday.

Chia Chor Yam, 54, admitted to three of 14 charges of giving a total of $20,300 in bribes to Mr Lim Seng Ping, 54, of eLpedia, as rewards to recommend eLpedia to award a contract to supply manpower to Knowledge Internet Solutions in 2004.

eLpedia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NLB and was set up to commercialise its library automation services.

Chia is the managing director of KIS which is in the business of developing software for customers.

A district court heard that Mr Lim, who was overall in charge of IT matters in eLpedia, approached Chia, his former classmate, in late 2003 to provide IT support and solution to eLpedia as Mr Lim was able to secure IT jobs from eLpedia.

In March 2004, Mr Lim told Chia that eLpedia needed manpower in IT-related fields for its automated library management system.

He said he could help him get the contract in return for kickbacks of $8,000 a month. Chia agreed to the corrupt deal.

Further investigation showed that Mr Lim provided great help to KIS by ensuring that KIS was awarded with contracts from eLpedia.

To avoid suspicion that the payments were bribes, Mr Lim billed KIS for consultation services.

Between May and August 2004, Chia made three payments of $6,300, $7,000 and $7,000 to Mr Lim for recommending eLpedia's manpower contract to KIS.

Mr Lim has been dealt with.

The remaining 11 charges were taken into consideration. Chia could have been fined up to $100,000 and/or jailed for up to five years on each proceeded charge.

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_381876.html