Singapore: On Monday (November 8), the director of a gourmet food distribution company was fined S$53,300 for repeatedly bribing the chef of Omakase Burger to supply truffle oil to the American gourmet burger chain.

Edmund Chan Yong Ann, 45, was convicted after receiving 30 bribes from Hoe Kim Tick to promote his business interests with Omakase Burger.

Chan founded Orchard Hills in 2013, a food delivery company that imports and serves gourmet food to restaurants. He met Hoe at the end of 2014, when Hoe was the chef of Omakase Burger, responsible for ordering supplies and managing kitchen inventory.

Chan and Hoe discussed the type, price and quantity of truffle oil used by Omakase, and hoped to become Omakase’s truffle oil supplier because it is the most profitable item in Orchard Hills’ inventory.

Since February 2015, Chan has paid S$300 a month in cash and made 24 such payments in Turf City or Wisma Atria smoking areas. Chan also gave Hoe two red envelopes, a bottle of Martell cognac, a Masamoto knife worth S$150, a Louis Vuitton belt worth S$300 to S$400, and a Bottega Veneta wallet worth S$300.

The Corruption Investigation Bureau (CPIB) learned of these crimes in February 2017 and listened to Chen’s confession.

Chen’s lawyer requested a fine of S$45,000 and stated that he had cooperated with the authorities and provided corroboration in the interview. They said that truffle oil was supplied to Omakase.

Instead, the prosecutor demanded a fine of S$54,000, retorting the defense and saying that it “artificially stated that there was no real loss.”

“On the ultimate question of corruption and its insidious degree,
It is always the client who can get better quality goods or better prices,” she said, adding that “it will definitely cause economic losses.”

For every allegation of corrupting his business interests, Chan was sentenced to up to five years in prison, a fine of up to S$100,000, or both.

Hoe admitted his role in corruption and was summoned as a witness for the prosecution. He was fined S$35,000 and fined S$7,476 in June 2018.

Omakase Burger announced on its Facebook page earlier that it will cease operations before the end of October this year.

Singapore: A new nationwide eGIRO service was launched on Monday (November 8), fully digitizing the current paper-based GIRO process and allowing applications to be processed within minutes.

GIRO was first introduced in 1984 as an electronic direct debit mechanism that allows individuals to set up regular bill payments from their bank accounts. These can be personal income tax, mobile phone bills, seasonal parking fees, tuition fees, etc.

Currently, the application process is manual and takes an average of three weeks. Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said when launching a new plan at Singapore Fintech Festival x Singapore Innovation Technology Week 2021 that if further clarification is needed, it may take as long as six weeks.

On average, Singapore has about 1 million GIRO applications each year.

The Singapore Banking Association (ABS) stated in another press release that the new eGIRO service is built on “API (application programming interface) and cloud-based architecture, which will allow the solution to quickly scale to suit all needs” . Banking and billing organizations in Singapore”.

It added that in the initial phase, eight major banks and 13 billing organizations will gradually provide eGIRO.

These banks are DBS Bank, OCBC Bank, UOB, Bank of China, HSBC, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Maybank, and Standard Chartered Bank.

Billing organizations come from different business units, such as the Central Provident Fund Board, Housing Development Board, GrabPay, Singtel Dash and Etiqa Insurance Singapore.

The association stated that ABS is seeking to expand the list of banks and billing organizations in the subsequent stages of eGIRO’s services.

“With the new eGIRO service, the creation and cancellation of GIRO orders will be automated, and the turnaround time will be significantly reduced from approximately three weeks to just a few minutes,” said Ong-Ang Ai Boon, ABS Director.

“It will also reduce the consumption of paper documents by approximately 2 million per year, thereby minimizing errors caused by human intervention.”

New digital services will not replace paper applications for the time being.

“There is no plan to immediately stop the paper application form because we still need to check the different situations of citizens,” Mr. Ng Peng Khim, head of eGIRO’s technical workflow, told reporters at the briefing.

“Some of them are more willing to digitize through online banking and mobile banking, and some may continue to use paper forms to apply for GIRO. We will study this at a later stage.”

The Monetary Authority of Singapore stated that this new service marks an important step towards a more inclusive digital economy in Singapore.

Its Chief Financial Technology Officer Sopnendu Mohanty said: “This is in line with our vision to promote interoperable solutions and seamless digital services to reach more people and businesses at lower costs and greater convenience.

“Individuals and businesses in Singapore will continue to benefit from digital efforts and partnerships between regulators and industry participants. eGIRO can pave the way for the industry to explore innovative payment models, such as automatic e-wallet recharges in the future.”

Singapore: The Singapore Food Authority (SFA) on Saturday (November 6) recalled three cooking sauces and sauces because they were found to contain more than permitted levels of preservatives.

SFA said in a press release that Fenghe Garden’s “Ganxiang Sauce”, “moo-mite Sauce” and “Salted Egg Yolk Sauce” are from Malaysia.

There is also no statement on the use of preservatives on food packaging labels.

“SFA has instructed importer Feng He Garden Pte Ltd to recall all related products,” the agency added. The recall is ongoing.

According to Singapore’s food regulations, food preservatives and other ingredients must be declared on the food packaging label.

“Only permitted food preservatives can be used in food imported or manufactured and sold in Singapore, and these preservatives must not exceed the prescribed maximum allowable level,” SFA said.

It added that consumers can contact their point of purchase for inquiries.