 Former NKF CEO pleads not guilty to criminal charges
SINGAPORE : Former National Kidney Foundation (NKF) CEO T T Durai returned to court on Wednesday to face two criminal charges of using false documents with intent to deceive the old NKF.
Durai pleaded not guilty after the charges were read to him.
The prosecution led by David Khoo proceeded on the first charge, while the second one was stood down.
Durai is alleged to have used a false invoice directing payment of S$20,000 to DTC for interior design consultancy services at dialysis centres in 2003.
But Mr Khoo said all the design work was done by TID Associates instead, and NKF had already paid for their services.
In subsequent sessions, the prosecution will call on witness David Tan, one of the owners of DTC and also Chairman of TID Associates.
The Court will hear that Mr Tan had instructed the invoice to be made to DTC, and not TID Associates, as the payment was meant for him personally.
Mr Tan is also expected to testify that the money was not for any work done, but was Durai's way of rewarding him for soliciting two large donations for the old NKF, totalling some S$13 million.
Key donors included the late Tay Choon Hai, Chairman and Managing Director of the SUTL Group who gave S$5 million and Venerable Kuan Yan, President of the Singapore Buddhist Welfare Services who donated S$8 million.
The prosecution will call 13 witnesses to the stand.
Among them are former NKF staff who will testify that the paperwork relating to the DTC invoice was irregular.
Durai's lawyer, Senior Counsel Sant Singh, has also applied for two witnesses to be subpoenaed.
They are ex-staff Edwin Ramakrishnan and Krishnan Jayaraman, who was interrogated for about a week during the civil trial.
It will be the prosecution's case to prove that DTC had no dealings whatsoever with the old NKF and that DTC did not provide any interior design consultancy services to the organisation.
Its witnesses will further testify that the payment and purchasing procedure deviated from what was adopted by the old NKF.
Meanwhile, most of the day in court on Wednesday was spent grilling former NKF staff on administrative procedures.
As lawyers zoomed in on details of the flow of purchase orders, requisition forms and invoices, two clear trends emerged.
One was that although payment procedures were in place, they were not always followed.
The second was that once Durai had signed off his approval on a payment, few, if any, questions were asked.
First to take the stand was Wendy Au, Assistant Manager from the CEOs' office.
She was grilled for three hours.
And at certain points of the cross-examination, Durai was seen passing urgent post-it notes to his lawyer.
Au was asked why she had processed a S$20,000 invoice when there were no supporting documents.
The response that came repeatedly was: "I must have been instructed".
Assistant Purchasing Manager Ragini Vijayalingam was up next.
She testified that the Requisition Purchase did not appear to be in line with NKF's usual payment and purchasing procedures.
This was because there was no underlying quotation for design consultancy services rendered.
Ragini also said that the company DTC, which received $20,000, did not have any working relationship with NKF.
But although she questioned it, she admitted that she did not carry it any further.
Lawyers also cross-examined witnesses on what other assistance David Tan, the man at the centre of this S$20 000-cheque-storm and who owns the company DTC, may have rendered NKF. - CNA/ms  To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.: Asia Solution Kenetics
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