Manager jailed for taking bribes to rig Biopolis deal

AN OPERATIONS manager at a multinational company who took bribes to fiddle a contract at the Biopolis project has been sentenced to 10 months' jail.

Lim Niann Tsyr, 40, was yesterday also ordered to pay a penalty of about $176,000 - $27,000 plus US$96,000 (S$149,000) - the amounts he accepted as bribes from the chief executive officer of Linair Technologies Tommy Oh Boon Hua.

The penalty will be paid from the bribery money that Lim had surrendered to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau during its investigation in March 2005.

Lim is appealing against the sentence, and is out on $120,000 bail pending the outcome.

At the time of the offences in 2003 and 2004, he worked for Honeywell and was in charge of part of the Biopolis project, Singapore's biomedical research complex.

Honeywell had engaged its subsidiary, Phoenix Controls Corporation, to supply and commission a laboratory air-flow control system for various blocks at the Biopolis.

The court heard that Phoenix regional sales manager Anthony Lim Tiong Teck offered Lim about $100,000 to convince Honeywell's management to allow Phoenix to sub-contract the job to a local representative. Lim agreed.

Mr Lim of Phoenix had Linair in mind as the local representative company.

Linair, together with a front company set up by Mr Oh called Integrated Solutions Engineering, was subsequently appointed to carry out the works. The job was estimated to be worth US$935,000.

Lim pleaded guilty last week to two corruption charges and one of cheating Honeywell of $21,445 relating to fictitious supplies.

Four other corruption charges were taken into consideration.

None of the others has been charged.

Defence counsel Nicholas Narayanan had asked for a fine, saying it was Mr Anthony Lim who had made the unsolicited offer of money to his client, who succumbed in a moment of weakness.

Lim, whose wife is expecting their third child and having a difficult pregnancy, had co-operated with the authorities.

Now unemployed, Lim could have been fined up to $100,000 or jailed for up to five years, or both for each corruption charge. The maximum penalty for cheating is a year's jail or fine, or both.