A scandal at the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) involving the procurement of services has been uncovered.
An email which has been circulating alleges that a senior staff member of the FAS has been told to leave after it was discovered that he was found guilty of various issues involving the procurement of services through an external service provider.
TOC shall not publish the full contents of the email as it has not been corroborated.
The email was forwarded to Minister for Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam.
According to a source who is close to the FAS, the staff member is a deputy director, who has been with the FAS for a decade.
While the nature of his wrongdoing is not known, what has been confirmed is that it involves the procurement of services for the FAS.
It has been said that the company in question – All Resource Network – which has been earning contracts from the FAS for about five years, is a company which was registered in his wife’s name in 2014.
Another source who is close to FAS said that the issue was raised through a whistleblower, which then triggered the internal investigation.
It is not known what the FAS’ Administration and Finance Committee led by its Vice-President Bernard Tan will be doing to upend and put the FAS’ current procurement under a microscope.
TOC also understands that a senior Council member of the FAS has sent multiple Whatsapp messages to the rest of the Council, asking for a report be made with the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB).
It is not known whether the FAS has filed a CPIB report, and is also not known why it has not issued any statement over the matter, in the interest of transparency since the FAS operates on public funds.
When elected to office by affiliates in 2017, President of FAS Lim Kia Tong said that he had hoped to bring sweeping changes to Singapore football.
When the team’s manifesto was released before the elections, top on the list of 10 Key Points was that his team would “create a transparent FAS that has a high standard of administration.”
TOC has reached out to the FAS for a response but it has yet replied. We asked with reference to the email sent to the Law Minister:
- Has FAS filed a CPIB report?
- The email says the staff has been fired. When was he fired?
- When did FAS made the discovery and how was it discovered?
TOC will include FAS’ response, should it chooses to reply to our queries.
