The first witness in the sex-for-contracts trial involving former chief of the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Peter Lim Sin Pang was called to the stand Monday morning.

Business development manager Mr Raymond Tan Peng Leng during cross-examination by the prosecution and the defence, said that he was told in March 2011 to look online for suppliers of walkthrough radioactive detectors on the instructions of Ms Pang Chor Mui.

He told that court that this was before the SCDF tender documents were released and he was not given specifics such as budget and deadline.

He found two American companies, and Nimrod Engineering eventually worked with one of them to tender for the SCDF project called in April 2011, which asked for the same type of detectors that he had researched.

When asked if he felt it was an abnormal request, he said: "No, in my thinking because I thought it is for the Japanese earthquake, there's a disaster so in my mind I thought she saw some potential in this product and asked me to look for this."

Lim, 52, faces 10 counts of corruption in a sex-for-contracts case. But, as decided earlier, the prosecution will proceed with one charge involving Ms Pang Chor Mui, in her 40s, from Nimrod Engineering first.

Lim is alleged to have received oral sex from Ms Pang on May 2, 2010 in exchange for furthering the business interests of her former company.