$222M MRT contract awarded to grassroots’ company

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

The construction of Maxwell station has been awarded to Hock Lian Seng Infrastructure at a contract sum of approximately $222 million. Construction for the stations will commence in the second quarter of 2014 and be completed by 2021.

Hock Lian Seng Infrastructure is a 100% subsidiary of Hock Lian Seng Holdings, a public company listed on SGX.

The annual report also listed Dr Ong Seh Hong as the Independent Non-executive Chairman and Mr Chua Leong Hai as the Executive Director and CEO of the company.

Dr Ong Seh Hong was a PAP MP from 2001 to 2011, serving 2 terms. In 2001, he ran for election in Aljunied GRC. In 2006, he was switched to run in Marine Parade GRC. He was the MP for Kampong Ubi-Kembangan ward. In 2011, he stepped down to make way for other PAP newcomers.

In the annual report of Hock Lian Seng, it stated that Dr Ong was appointed as Director of the company on 23 September 2011, not too long after he stepped down from politics after the 2011 GE.

While Dr Ong was a PAP MP, he was also the clinical director and chief operating officer of the Ren Ci Hospital & Medicare Centre, and Ren Ci Community Hospital from 2000 to 2009.

In April 2009 during the trial of former Ren Ci CEO, Venerable Shi Ming Yi, it was revealed that $60,000 loan was granted to Dr Ong by Ming Yi, even though the hospital did not have a formal policy on it. Testifying in court, Ren Ci’s former human resource manager, Joyce Teng Lee Foong, said the staff loan was made to Dr Ong when he first joined the hospital in 2000. The $60,000 loan is understood to be the largest sum approved by Ming Yi.

The revelation in court shocked many Singaporeans then. Many wrote on social media expressing their disbelief that a doctor and MP had to resort to borrowing from charity. Others felt that it is morally wrong for Dr Ong to knowingly accept the money which was meant to help needy patients. Some cynically commented that had Ming Yi not gone to trial, such matters would not even have surfaced for the public to know. Still, others were questioning if they were donating money to a charity or a moneylender?

With the intense social media discussions on the matter, Dr Ong was later forced to write to the media, to explain the circumstances under which he received the $60,000 loan from Ren Ci. Dr Ong then said: http://www.tremeritus.com/2014/05/13...roots-company/


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