Commissioner of Police Ng Joo Hee is not acquainted with Esther Goh, one of the women named in the sex-for-deal corruption case involving former Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) commissioner Peter Lim Sin Pang, the police said in a statement on Friday.
This, after an October 2011 photo of Ng presenting a token of appreciation to Goh, has began circulating online.
In their statement, which is posted on their Facebook page, the police said that Ng “deeply regrets that the photograph has been misused by irresponsible persons online as a basis for making vulgarities, inanities and all manner of mischievous innuendos”.
Netizens started to leave lewd comments after the photo surfaced on sites such as the SammyBoyForum and citizen-run blog Temasek Times.
Ho Yenn Dar, the police’s assistant director for media relations, clarified that the picture of Goh and Ng was taken at a charity concert held to raise funds for the Community Chest.
Ho added that Goh was there to accept a token of appreciation on behalf of her then-company, NCS Pte Ltd, which donated more than $10,000 at the event.
“It will be unfortunate and most unfair should the Community Chest and the charities that it supports suffer because of the actions of a few misguided and irresponsible individuals,” Ho wrote.
Goh, the former director of business development in NCS, was one of three women embroiled in Lim’s corruption scandal, which first came to light in January. Lim, 52, a former government scholar who became SCDF commissioner in 2009, was charged with 10 counts of corruption in the Subordinate Courts last Wednesday.
He is out on $10,000 bail and will appear in court again on 5 July.
Lim allegedly had sexual intercourse with Goh in seven separate occasions between April and November 2011 in exchange for favouring Goh's firm in IT-related tenders called by the SCDF.
All contracts and tenders involving Lim and Goh have either been suspended or are under review by the Home Affairs Ministry.
COMMENT More than 2 weeks since the announcement of new Internet regulations, the public is still none the wiser. Even foreigners and foreign organisations which might be affected by the new rules are still trying to understand the licensing regime. … Continue reading →