Chong Chee Wai pleaded guilty to five graft charges involving S$142,000. - Photo: ST
SINGAPORE: The sole proprietor of a maintenance and renovation company gave bribes totalling more than S$235,000 to a director of facilities management at the Singapore Zoological Gardens.
The attraction, now known as the Singapore Zoo, was a subsidiary of Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS).
The prosecution said Chong Chee Wai, who owned Katana Engineering at the time of the offences, gave the bribes to Barry Chong Peng Wee, 57, who has since left WRS, now known as the Mandai Wildlife Group.
As a result of the corrupt arrangement, WRS awarded contracts worth nearly $1.93 million to Katana Engineering. Court documents did not disclose details about the works stated in the contracts.
On Tuesday (Aug 27), Chong Chee Wai, a 48-year-old Malaysian with Singapore permanent residency, was sentenced to 14 months’ jail after he pleaded guilty to five graft charges involving $142,000.
Fifteen other charges relating to the remaining amount were considered during sentencing. He committed the offences in 2014 and 2015.
Too Say Kiong, then 57, who was involved in the pair’s case, was sentenced to two years and two months’ jail in October 2023. Barry Chong’s case is pending.
A search with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority revealed that Chong Chee Wai no longer owns Katana Engineering.
At the time of the offences, Too was a foreman at a firm called Shin Yong Construction (SYC).
Deputy public prosecutors Kelvin Chong, Shamini Joseph and Darren Sim stated in court documents on Aug 27 that Barry Chong entered into a corrupt arrangement in 2005 with SYC’s key personnel, including Too.
The DPPs told the court that Barry Chong would ensure WRS-related jobs were awarded to SYC in exchange for monetary commissions.
They added that some time in late 2013 or early 2014, Barry Chong and Too came up with an arrangement in which Too would look for other contractors to take part in the corrupt arrangement.
Too then approached Chong Chee Wai, who agreed to participate in it.
Court documents stated that as part of the deal, Barry Chong would ensure that jobs were awarded to Katana Engineering in exchange for commissions.
The DPPs said: “Barry would tell the accused through Too a specific price to bid at... The accused would then get Katana to put in a bid at that price, which required the accused to prepare an inflated invoice or quotation.
“The quotations received by WRS would be collated and presented to Barry and the managers working under him, who would generally award the job to the lowest quote received.”
The court heard that Barry Chong and Too also got other contractors to put in bids that were higher than those Katana Engineering had submitted, to ensure that the jobs would be awarded to it.
The DPPs said that Barry Chong would also inform Too of the amounts to be paid to him.
After that, Too would collect the monies from Chong Chee Wai and deliver them to Barry Chong.
In total, Too received around $10,000 from Chong Chee Wai for facilitating this corrupt arrangement.
WRS suffered a loss of more than $235,000 due to the inflated invoices.
The scheme ended when the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau started its investigation into the case in October 2016.
Chong Chee Wai is expected to begin serving his sentence on Sept 27. His bail has been set at $50,000. - The Straits Times/ANN
