Former Singapore Protocol chief submits guilty plea in false expenses claims

Former chief of protocol Lim Cheng Hoe at the Foreign Affairs Ministry had submitted a guilty plea to all ten charges for submitting false information regarding his expenses, a Bloomberg report said. The 61 year-old ex-government official allegedly boosted his expense claims by $71,000 or equivalent to S$88,997, and was officially charged in October of last year with 60 counts of cheating, the news agency said. Each charge reportedly carries 10 years maxium in jail sentence and a fine.

A dispute over the length of each charge Lim has faced was carried out by prosecutor Kelvin Kow and Lim's defense lawyer Philip Fong at the court of presiding Singapore Subordinate Courts Judge Eddy Tham, Bloomberg said. Kow argued that Lim should face 18 months to resolutely deter the rest of the charges, while Fong proposed a jail term from eight to 10 months. Kow insisted that Lim should not be treated as a first offender, and that his abuse of position as a top public official has caused Singapore a vast amount of public disquiet and tainted the reputation of the country's public service.

Bloomberg reported that Lim claimed to purchase 10,075 boxes of pineapple tarts over a four-year period every Lunar New Year as a form of common gift. The news agency said that Lim inflated his expense claims by four and a half times the real amount. Quoting prosecutors, Lim also padded his expense claims by appropriating for items that he did not purchase at all.

Fong was quoted as saying that Lim had acknowledged his misdeeds, and even cited his defendant's multiple public service awards. Despite the possibility of Lim bringing shame to public service, Fong told the court that Lim's actions did not necessarily harmed the county's ties with other nations.

Bloomberg said that in July of last year, an official was charged with misappropriation in a separate case and a former civil defense chief was sent to jail in a sex-for-contracts case. The cases reportedly led Singapore to replace its anti-corruption agency head and had vowed to tighten controls in public agencies to prevent similar occurences to happen in the future.

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Singapore Foreign Affairs Ministry, Lim Cheng Hoe, Singapore Subordinate Courts

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