Tuesday, June 30, 2009

SINGAPORE: Anti-corruption agency continues watch over bunker industry

(http://www.AugustEnergy.biz/, June 30, Tuesday) --- Singapore’s guardian against fraud and commercial malpractices, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), engaged the bunkering sector last week at last week’s “BUNKER INDUSTRY: Trading, Pricing and Operating Risks” conference held at Suntec City in Singapore.
During June 24-25 event, organised by August Energy Pte Ltd, Ang Seow Lian, an assistant director at the agency, said the world’s largest bunker refuelling and supply port was “well regulated and on the right path.”
He said that, while there were some high-profile corruption cases over the years – giving the industry “quite a bad reputation” - the authorities have made significant gains in “reducing the opportunities for malpractices.”
Mr Ang, however, emphasised how the CPIB continues to monitor the bunker industry due to its “critical importance” to Singapore’s economy, generating revenues of around US$15 billion annually. He used the public speaking opportunity – a rare event for the agency – to explain how corruption “raises the costs of doing business on a whole”.
“We will not stop (investigating),” he said, explaining that the CPIB’s “objective is to keep the industry as clean as we can, though we know it’s impossible to be totally clean.”
He revealed that the CPIB has prosecuted more than 70 surveyors, bosses or staff of bunker companies since it began cracking down on the industry in 2000. Ship owners complained that they were being shortchanged on fuel supply and quality.
In 2002, the Singapore court convicted more than 60 marine surveyors on corruption charges and fined them for accepting bribes.
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