Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say defended the legal corruption of awarding tenders to PAP grassroots leaders yesterday (July 20), saying that there is no need to change the way how the tenders are awarded:
“The Government has a regulatory framework in place, which was enhanced recently. We will keep refining its system.”
Referring to the recent fatal incident of collapsed bridge which was tendered by a PAP grassroots leader, the PAP Minister said that the incident was a learning experience:
“There are lessons to be learnt … and we should learn the right lessons and then make the necessary change and enhancement.”
In the collapsed bridge incident, the winning tenderer is a construction company with deep PAP connections. All of its directors are PAP grassroots leaders, and one of them is a former PAP Minister while the other a former senior civil servant. The contractor won the tender by beating its closest competitor by 27%, and it was also later uncovered that 3 days prior to the fatal collapsed bridge incident, the company was convicted in court for causing a worker’s death in 2015.
Also, the Ministry of Manpower placed the company on blacklist between January and April this year, but the PAP-linked company managed to secure the S$100 million bridge tender.
The collapsed bridge killed one China worker and seriously injured two, while seven others were hospitalised.