SINGAPORE — Peoples Voice, Lim Tean posted a video on his TikTok account on Friday to comment on the decision by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) to issue stern warnings to the six senior executives of Keppel Offshore & Marine (KOM) over their involvement in a bribery scheme in Brazil which resulted in the top ten US Foreign Corrupt Practices. Act (FCPA) enforcement actions of all time based on assessed penalties.
Below is the transcript of what Mr Lim said in his video.
If you walk into Kinokuniya, the big bookshop in Takashimaya, you will find a book on the CPIB, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau, the title of which is known as Scrupulous, Thorough, Fearless. I repeat again, “Scrupulous, Thorough, Fearless”.
I think in light of what happened yesterday, the author of that book may want to revise the title.
What happened yesterday? CPIB came out and told Singaporeans that it was not going to prosecute six senior figures in Keppel Offshore. Instead, it was just going to give them a stern warning. Right?
Basically a slap on the wrist. You know, Keppel was involved in a disgraceful corruption scandal in Brazil involving Petrobras, the Brazilian oil and gas company, the national oil and gas company.
They paid US$55 million to bribe people in Petrobras so that they could secure contracts.
And it was believed that over a decade, they secured about US$1 billion in contracts. And the Department of Justice in America came to know about it, investigated and was going to charge Keppel. And Keppel entered into a plea bargain with the DOJ (Department of Justice).
Agreed to pay US$422 million in fines. And you know the CPIB said, Oh, there are evidentiary difficulties here. It is transnational. We may not be able to prosecute successfully.
Total nonsense and rubbish.
There was an agreed statement of facts in the plea bargain with the Department of Justice in America, in which Keppel admitted to the offence.
Prosecution of these six would not have been difficult. You know, it would have been a walk in the park. You go for a stroll. Easily done. The six would have been convicted.
And you know, my friends, let’s let this all sink in in the context of what the government has told us over the years.
Zero tolerance for corruption. Right?
And I want to read to you the words of Lee Hsien Loong in 2012 when he said this.
“Anyone who breaks the rules will be caught and punished. No cover-up will be allowed, no matter how senior the officer or how embarrassing it may be, it’s far better to suffer the embarrassment and keep the system clean for the long term than to pretend that nothing has gone wrong and to let the rot spread.”
How does what happened yesterday go with those words of Lee Hsien Loong?
All right. So I say this is total rubbish. And, you know, my friends, I always talk about the rule of law.
The rule of law is not just about the equal applicability of law for everyone in the courts. The rule of law is also the restriction of the arbitrary exercise of power by subordinating it to well-defined and established rules.
And, you know, one of the most important people in the legal scene in any country is the Attorney-General.
He’s the public prosecutor.
All right. In him, vast, vast powers of decision-making, whether to prosecute someone or not.
And I think what happened yesterday was a total disgrace.
Singaporeans will not be faulted if they go away thinking, well, if you’re a forklift driver, you’re a crematorium worker, you’re a prostitute. Yeah, the CPIB will come after you. But if you’re a senior person in a GLC (Government-Linked Company), you get a slap on the wrist.
So and the other thing is this. Why put in the six be named? You know, when a normal person is given a warning by the police, that person is named. So why are those six protected from naming and shaming?
When they arrest an opposition politician. The headlines blare, Straits Times and all that, which we know now are involved in the shenanigans of falsifying circulation figures. We’ll blare out the headlines.
But if you are a senior employee in the GLC, it appears you are well protected.
So I want to register Peoples Voice’s disgust and protest at what happened.
And I hope the Opposition MPs and NCMPs will bring this up for debate in Parliament in February. Thank you.
