SINGAPORE — She had been in an “intimate” and non-sexual relationship with her boss at Nimrod Engineering when she performed oral sex on ex-Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) chief Peter Lim.

And such a relationship with her then-boss — Mr Tamil Selvan — put Ms Pang Chor Mui in a position to want to protect Nimrod’s business interests, the prosecution argued yesterday, as the sex-for-contracts trial continued.

Lim, 52, is alleged to have obtained oral sex from Ms Pang in 2010 in exchange for business favours and tipping her off about the SCDF’s need for radiation portal monitors before the information was made public through a tender on April 6, 2011.

Taking the stand for the first time yesterday, Ms Pang, 49, a divorcee, said her relationship with Mr Selvan — whom she has known for 17 years — was of a non-sexual nature.

To this, Deputy Public Prosecutor Sherlyn Neo said that Ms Pang’s “special relationship” with Mr Selvan and the fact that she held a senior post — she was the former General Manager of Nimrod — put her in an “elevated position where she would definitely want to protect Nimrod’s business interests”.

The prosecution will cross-examine Ms Pang — who was their key witness — today, after she gave several statements that were inconsistent with those given to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) early last year.

She will be asked to verify her testimonies on her involvement in Nimrod’s bid for the SCDF tender, her correspondence with Lim and also the details of their sexual encounter on May 2, 2010.

Throughout the seven-hour hearing yesterday, Ms Pang was unable to answer several of the prosecution’s questions as she could not “recall” most of the details. Parts of her CPIB statements were then shown to her to jolt her memory.

It was revealed that Lim had texted Ms Pang following the Fukushima nuclear incident on March 11, 2011, asking if Nimrod carried walk-through radiation portal monitors.

She replied that Nimrod did not, but offered to help him source for suppliers and later forwarded the information to Lim. No further action was taken then.

Ms Pang said she was “a bit reluctant” to bring in the machines because of the investment involved and she did not see any business opportunity.

But at a meeting in late April 2011, Mr Selvan decided to “enter the market” after she told him about the SCDF tender and similar enquiries from other companies.

Nimrod subsequently submitted a bid but was not awarded the contract as the SCDF cancelled the tender. It submitted the same bid for a similar tender that the SCDF called in November that year.

Investigations into Lim began even before the tender had been awarded.

The court heard that Lim and Ms Pang became acquainted in 1996 following a product demonstration in Norway by the company she was then working for.

After that, contact between the two gradually stopped. It was only in May 2009, when Ms Pang sent Lim a congratulatory SMS upon hearing that he had become the Commissioner of the SCDF, that they re-established contact.

Ms Pang told the court that Lim was someone she liked “a lot” and they would exchange “playful” text messages.

On May 2, 2010, she had driven Lim home after he texted her saying he had been drinking earlier that evening.

When they reached his condominium in Tanjong Rhu, Lim asked if Ms Pang would like to “chit chat” before she left. Ms Pang then drove to a nearby car park and they started talking in the car. “We started kissing and hugging and touching, and finally I performed the sexual act on him,” Ms Pang said. She later drove Lim home.

The pair kept in contact through messages but did not meet after the encounter as Ms Pang was too “busy”.

The trial continues.