A former deputy director at the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) exploited his position to ensure the sporting body’s supply contracts were awarded to companies linked to him or his wife.
Rikram Jit Singh Randhir Singh has admitted to dishonestly inducing FAS to disburse $609,380, from which he and his wife, Asya Kirin Kames, made a profit of $127,896.
On Wednesday, the 43-year-old Singaporean pleaded guilty to 15 cheating charges. Another 30 similar charges will be taken into consideration for his sentencing on Jan 16.
Rikram joined FAS in December 2010 as a marketing manager and became a deputy director in July 2017.
The accused met Asya, 37, while she was working in the communications department at FAS in 2013.
Leaving FAS in December that year, Asya set up a company, called All Resources Network (ARN), specialising in event management and the sale of sporting and recreational goods.
Rikram and Asya spoke frequently as ARN regularly organised or supported FAS events. They soon became romantically involved, and were married in February 2018.
In February 2016, the Ministry of Social and Family Development and the National Council of Problem Gambling (NCPG) agreed for FAS to produce and disseminate clappers, stress balls, scroll banners and football scarves. These would carry NCPG imagery and be distributed at S-League matches and youth outreach programmes.
Rikram convinced former colleague Pallaniappan Ravindran, 51, not to wind down an unprofitable company, Myriad Sports & Events, so he could use it as a front to quote for supply jobs that he would then pass to ARN.
In one instance, Ravindran submitted a quotation for 130,000 clappers valued at $28,600.
FAS requires procurements valued between $3,000 and $50,000 to have at least three quotations. To fulfil the requirement, Rikram instructed his subordinate to find two other quotations, even though he had already decided to buy the items from Myriad.
DPP Thiagesh Sukumaran said: “(The subordinate) understood this to mean that she was to create fictitious quotations which were higher than Myriad’s quotations to justify the approval of supply jobs to Myriad.”
The Straits Times
