2 Senior officials jailed in corruption scandals in Singapore

A former protocol chief of Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs was sentenced to 15 months behind bars on Thursday for cheating public money, while a senior anti-graft official was jailed ten years on the same day for misappropriation in a separate lawsuit. Lim Cheng Hoe, 61, former chief of protocol, had earlier pleaded guilty to cheating by inflating the expenses involving the purchase of pineapple tarts and wine repeatedly. Lim was convicted of ten counts of cheating amounting to about 35,000 Singapore dollars (27,778 U.S. dollars). He had also admitted to 50 counts of cheating totaling some 54,000 Singapore dollars (42,857 U.S. dollars), which were taken into consideration in sentencing. Lim made the false claims between February 2008 and May 2012. Claims were made for more than 10,000 boxes of pineapple tarts when only 2,200 boxes were purchased. He had become acquainted with the shopkeepers selling the tarts and had asked them for blank receipts and filled them up himself. Lim used genuine receipts for the wine, but he bought more bottles than he had planned to take on his overseas trips. The maximum penalty for cheating by a public servant is ten years in jail and a fine for each count. District Judge Eddy Tham said that Lim clearly abused the trust placed in him and brought great disrepute to the public office. Separately, Edwin Yeo Seow Hiong, 39, a former assistant director at the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau, was sentenced to ten years in jail for criminal breach of trust. He misappropriated over 1.75 million Singapore dollars (1.39 million U.S. dollars) and committed forgery between 2009 and 2012. The court heard that the former head of field research and technical support at the world-renowned anti-graft body misappropriated the money that was intended to be used for the purchase of goods and services the department needed. Yeo used a false receiving voucher to trick an assistant director of the administration and support department into believing that full payment has been made for the purchase of some equipment by the agency. He used the funds for personal expenditures like credit card payments and gambling debts. He had incurred losses of about 740, 000 Singapore dollars (587,302 U.S. dollars) from gambling at casinos as well as through bets placed with Singapore Pools. The judge said on Thursday that only 65,000 Singapore dollars ( 51,587 U.S. dollars) of the misappropriated funds had been recovered. Yeo had faced 21 charges, but one of the charges was dropped later and he admitted to four charges. The remaining 16 charges were taken into consideration for sentencing. The maximum punishment for misappropriation by a public servant is life imprisonment, or up to 20 years in jail and a fine. Singapore has the world's fifth cleanest public sector among 176 countries and regions, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International. However, a slew of corruption cases involving senior officials had been exposed over the past two years. Both the cases of Lim and Yeo had made headlines as Lim's case involved a public servant cheating an amount that is not very large in comparison to what he earned as a senior public servant, while Yeo had been a veteran at the world-renowned anti-graft body of Singapore. They also prompted authorities to review the rules regulations and checks in the system. The Prime Minister's Office had said after Yeo was charged that it took "a very serious view of the case, especially because the officer was from an agency whose mission is to uphold the integrity of our system." It said that individual lapses can happen despite safeguards. However, as long as the fundamental importance of honest government is upheld and other officers in the organization are courageous enough to report when they think something is not right, such transgressions will be detected. "We will take strong measures to correct any weaknesses and processes and the Prime Minister's Office is also looking to see whether there were supervisory lapses. If so, we will take action against those responsible," Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, the minister in charge of the Civil Service, had said.