26 September 2012. On the opening day of the trial of former Central Narcotics Bureau chief Ng Boon Gay on Tuesday, the court heard how Cecilia Sue Siew Nang, 36, has “not been coping well with the situation she’s found herself in”. The court heard that she has been seeing a psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for the past three months due to the publicity arising from the case. The former IT executive, a sales manager of Hitachi Data Systems who later moved to Oracle during the time of the offence, is alleged to have had sex with Ng in order to win favour for contracts with CNB. Ng’s four fellatio trysts with Sue occurred on four different occasions between June and December last year. At the time, both her companies had no ongoing relationship with CNB. Sue was working on two separate IT contracts worth S$320,000. Prosecution acknowledged that Ng had at no time influenced or was directly involved in the process of awarding the contracts. Ng nevertheless had ultimate sign-off approval on any vendor deals worth up to S$1 million. The prosecution argued that the absence of lapses in the procurement processes at the CNB was not material to the case. Deputy Chief Prosecutor Tan Ken Hwee argued that Ng pressured Sue into performing oral sex, knowing his final approval was necessary and that she had to maintain a cordial relationship with the government agencies under her purview. In one specific instance, court documents related how one of the fellatio acts was performed on the same day CNB had officially contracted to buy certain products Sue was marketing. Ng’s defence lawyer, Tan Chee Meng argued that her statement during the 8.5 hour interrogation had several inconsistencies. Tan said the pair was involved in an “intimate relationship” since 2009 but only when Ng became director at CNB in 2011 was their relationship called into question. Although she herself did not make a court appearance, Sue dominated Tuesday morning’s proceedings, with prosecution lawyers arguing that her identity should remain anonymous and that her name should not be published in media. Although she herself did not make a court appearance, Sue dominated Tuesday morning’s proceedings. The gag order was turned down by judge Siva Shanmugam. The first witness to be called was Leslie Ong Yew San, managing director of American firm Oracle Corporation Singapore Pte Ltd. Ong told the court that Sue was hired because of her past experience in handling Ministry of Home Affairs contracts. Only after Ng was charged, an internal company investigation was carried out by Mr Ong, Oracle’s in-house legal counsel, and its Human Resource Director. Ong clarified that Sue’s resignation from the company shortly after the internal investigations were not because of the case, but because she failed to achieve her sales performance target. Mr Ong will continue to take the stand today. Apart from Ms Sue, the other witnesses are the General Manager of Hitachi Data Systems, the CNB Deputy Director, and a Ministry of Finance official. The trial is expected to last 18 days over a period of three months.
