Outside court, Durai remains friendly with ex-colleagues set to testify against him
THEY are on opposite sides of the fence.
But former National Kidney Foundation chief T T Durai still chatted amiably with his former colleagues, even though they were set to testify against him as prosecution witnesses.
Durai, 58, is contesting one corruption charge that accuses him of submitting a false invoice to justify paying $20,000 to Mr David Tan for getting $13 million of donations for NKF.
Mr Tan decorated the interiors for NKF's dialysis centres.
While Ms Ragini Vijayalingam, 44, NKF's former assistant purchasing manager, avoided eye contact with her ex-boss during her testimony, she chatted amiably with him during breaks.
Now a property agent, Ms Ragini was not the only one who remained friendly to Durai.
The charity's former honorary treasurer Loo Say San, 59, who is also a prosecution witness, was also seen joking and laughing with Durai outside Court 15, where the trial is being held.
Although Loo was present in court, he did not get to take the stand yesterday as Durai's lawyer, Senior Counsel Sant Singh, could not finish cross-examining Mr Lakshmanan Krishnadas.
CHATTED DURING BREAKS
Now a senior manager with SembCorp Industries, Mr Lakshmanan was Ms Ragini's boss in NKF and he too, chatted with Durai during breaks.
Loo himself is facing a charge of failing to do due diligence in discharging his duties as an officer of NKF, an offence under the Companies Act.
Still, that did not stop Loo chatting and joking with Durai.
Joining in their conversation was Loo's lawyer Peter Low, who was in court to hold a watching brief in case his client testified.
Yesterday's routine was similar to Wednesday's - Durai was accompanied by his younger son Dave, 19.
Both of them were driven to court in a black Hyundai sports utility vehicle by his elder son Shiva, 21.
While Shiva did not attend the hearing, Durai and Dave were accompanied by a family friend.
And like Wednesday, Durai remained in court during lunch, eating food prepared by his wife.
Again, he smiled politely when The New Paper made eye contact with him.
He also paid close attention to the proceedings, scribbling notes on yellow Post-It papers for his lawyer.
Even though Durai has attracted much negative publicity since his failed defamation suit against Singapore Press Holdings in 2005, there were still people who wished him well.
One of them was the son of an NKF patient who died a few years ago.
The man, who did not reveal his name to The New Paper, shook hands with Mr Durai and wished him well outside Court 15.
And in court yesterday, it emerged that Durai was not only a strict boss who expected everything to be done perfectly.
He was also a good negotiator who always managed to get goods and services at a discount for NKF.
When asked by Mr Singh if Durai was a hands-on chief executive, Ms Ragini replied that he often met suppliers with her.
'Mr Durai always managed to bring down the price. He was good at that,' said Ms Ragini.
'He also encouraged all staff to bring down prices quoted by suppliers.'
Durai faces a five-year jail term and a maximum fine of $100,000 if found guilty. The trial continues today.
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| Irregularities 'not unusual'
PROCEDURES were in place to ensure the NKF justified its spending.
But it was not unusual for NKF to pay suppliers before filing the necessary documents for its finance department.
T T Durai's lawyer Sant Singh continued to drive home his point that such irregularities were not uncommon at the charity when he cross-examined Ms Ragini Vijayalingam and Mr Lakshmanan Krishnadas yesterday.
Ms Ragini was shown several invoices for payments to several companies, including law firm Michael Khoo & Partners.
Mr Singh said: 'There were many cases where services were rendered and the RPs (requisitions to purchase) and purchase orders were raised after the invoices were received.'
Agreeing with the lawyer, Ms Ragini said the documents prepared by the purchasing department were referred to as post-RP.
But she added that the accounts department would not make payments till it received the purchase orders from her.
She admitted there were many instances of post-RPs.
One post-RP was created to pay Michael Khoo & Partners, which represented NKF in its failed defamation suit against Singapore Press Holdings in 2005.
The invoice was received on 2 Jun 2005, but the relevant documents were created later.
While Ms Ragini said on Wednesday that post-RPs had to be attached with notes explaining the urgency for the purchase, Mr Singh pointed out there was no explanation for the payment to the law firm.
To this, she replied that she knew for a fact that the charity was suing SPH.
She said: 'Mr Durai told all the staff in the NKF auditorium that he was taking action against SPH.' | |
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No hard feelings? - NKF 
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