SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): A man who was a foreman at his father’s construction firm took part in a decade-long conspiracy involving at least S$709,770 in bribes to a Singapore Zoo director.
Too Say Kiong, 57, who was working for Shin Yong Construction (SYC) when he took part in the corruption arrangement in 2005, had also worked with others to give at least $50,500 in bribes to a manager at the attraction.
At the time, Barry Chong Peng Wee, 56, was a facilities management director at the zoo, while Chin Fong Yi, also known as Carol, was a facilities manager there.
The two are no longer working for the zoo, which is a subsidiary of Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), now known as Mandai Wildlife Group.
It is estimated that WRS suffered losses of around $1.4 million arising from the corruption.
Too pleaded guilty on Thursday to 10 graft charges involving $288,500 and was sentenced to 26 months’ jail.
More than 100 other similar charges relating to the remaining amount were considered during sentencing.
A search of the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority reveals that he used to be a manager at Shin Yong Engineering Works and other firms.
According to court documents, he committed the offences with, among others, his brother Toh Say Yong, 68, who was then an SYC project manager.
The cases involving Toh and Chong are pending.
Chin, then 44, was sentenced in March 2022 to nine months’ jail and ordered to pay a penalty of more than $42,000.
The prosecution said that some time before 2005, Too, his father, Toh Siang Bee, and Chong arranged for SYC to be awarded WRS jobs in exchange for an undisclosed amount of cash.
Toh Say Yong took over his father’s place when the older man died.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Kelvin Chong, Shamini Joseph and Darren Sim said in court documents that the two brothers and Chong then entered into another arrangement in 2005.
The DPPs said this time, Chong would ensure that WRS-related jobs were awarded to SYC in exchange for monetary commission of a roughly 10 per cent mark-up in the bid price given to WRS.
They added that under this arrangement, Chong would tell Toh Say Yong a specific price to bid.
Referring to Toh Say Yong as “Yong”, the DPPs told the court: “Yong would then get SYC to put in a bid at that price, which required (Too) to prepare an inflated invoice or quotation.
“(Either brother) would also ask other contractors to put in bids that were usually slightly higher than the bid price given to them by Barry to ensure that WRS would award the job to SYC.”
Jobs were generally awarded to firms which had given the lowest quotes.
Some time in 2010 or 2011, Chin noticed that the prices on the quotations submitted by SYC and the other contractors were very close.
Suspecting that the contractors could be “price-fixing”, she asked Too if such an arrangement existed with Chong. She was then bribed to keep quiet about the matter.
The DPPs said that some time in late 2013 or early 2014, Chong and Too arranged for Too to look for other contractors to participate in corrupt arrangements.
Too approached two other businessmen and told them about the plan.
The pair agreed to be part of it, and they also gave Too cash for facilitating the arrangement.
The DPPs said that one of them gave Too between $10,000 and $20,000 while the other handed him about $10,000.
Their offences ended in October 2016 when the Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau started investigating the case.
Twelve people, including Chong and Too, were later charged in court in September 2021.
