FairPrice team leader ordered more fish and seafood from suppliers who gave $523,000 in bribes

Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
Apr 10, 2023

A former FairPrice team leader who worked with a colleague at the time to obtain $523,000 in bribes from multiple suppliers was sentenced to three years and two months’ jail on Monday.

See Hock Lam, 70, was also ordered to pay a penalty of $261,500. He will have to spend an additional 523 days behind bars if he cannot pay the amount.

See had earlier pleaded guilty to 10 counts of corruption.

His accomplice, Lim Kian Kok, 48, who used to be a senior team leader at the supermarket chain, was sentenced to four years and five months’ jail on March 31 after he pleaded guilty to 12 graft charges.

Lim was also ordered to pay a penalty of nearly $290,000, and will have to spend an additional 580 days behind bars if he fails to pay the amount.

The two men, who committed the offences from 2013 to 2020, had split their ill-gotten gains equally between them, each receiving $261,500.

Among the pair’s offences was ordering larger quantities of fish and seafood from suppliers that bribed them.

In earlier proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Pei Wei had said: “This caused potential harm to... FairPrice and/or its customers, as the goods... purchased may not have been the best available.

“As the country’s largest supermarket chain, (FairPrice) serves a large sector of the Singapore population, and the impact of corruption offences like the present may correspondingly be felt by many.”

DPP Tan told the court that See joined FairPrice in 1997 and later reported to Lim. See’s duties included helping Lim order crabs and prawns.

Lim, who is also known as Andrew, joined FairPrice in 2007 and oversaw its buying operations at Jurong Fishery Port when he became a senior team leader in 2013.

Lim had the discretion to determine from which suppliers to buy fish and the quantities.

Shortly after he became a senior team leader, he approached See and asked the older man if he “wanted to make money”.

DPP Tan said: “Andrew told See that he intended to ask some of the suppliers at Jurong Fishery Port for money in return for purchasing more fish from them.

“He asked See to join him so See would support him in obtaining payments from suppliers... and would not complain to FairPrice about this arrangement.”

See agreed to the plan as he needed cash to feed his gambling habit. The pair later approached four suppliers for the bribes.

Other offenders linked to the suppliers were dealt with in court earlier.

They included Ngow Chun Siong, 44, who was then working for Fish Vision Agro-tech, and Heah Han Huat, 65, who ran Ocean Trust Trading.

In a statement on Monday evening, the FairPrice Group (FPG) said that since this incident, it has conducted thorough reviews of its procurement processes and implemented actions to strengthen its controls and governance where needed.

Its spokesman said: “(We have) zero tolerance for any behaviour that violates (our) code of conduct. The FPG code of conduct lays down principles of personal and professional conduct, and we require all our employees to hold themselves to these standards... FPG remains committed to moderating the cost of living in Singapore.”