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SINGAPORE – A resident technical officer accepted more than $ 5,000 in bribes in exchange for leniency in inspections of the Customs Operations Command Complex (COCC) construction site.
Lee Mun Cheng was jailed for 18 weeks and fined $ 7,000 on Tuesday (October 6).
The 53-year-old Singaporean was also ordered to pay a fine of $ 5,319.78, which was the total amount of bribes he accepted.
He had previously pleaded guilty to three counts each of corruption and account falsification, and two counts of cheating.
During the sentencing, 19 other charges were considered. She committed the crimes in 2017 and 2018.
His three alleged accomplices were working for the Newcon Builders construction company at the time.
They are Indian national Rajendran Thiagarajan, 33; Guo Jiaxun, Chinese citizen, 34 years old; and Lin Haifeng, 45, from Singapore. Their cases are still pending.
Deputy Prosecutors Dora Tay and Joseph Gwee testified in court documents that on September 23, 2016, Newcon secured the position to be the prime construction contractor for the Singapore Customs-owned COCC project.
Lee was then working for CPG Consultants, which inspects mechanical construction work at the sites, among other things.
Around February 2017, the company sent him to work on the COCC project on Bulim Drive in Jurong West. He was responsible for ensuring that construction work was carried out in accordance with contractual requirements.
Their working hours were from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm on weekdays and from 8.30 am to 12.30 pm on Saturdays. The court heard that Lee could claim CPG overtime pay only if he was physically present at the site to conduct the inspection beyond his normal working hours.
The court heard that sometime in August 2017, Guo and Lin from Newcon Builders considered Lee to be too strict in his inspections, and this was causing delays in the project.
The DPPs said in the court documents: “Guo suggested to Lin that he plan more overtime (overtime) for Lee, which would result in more money for Lee.
“This was intended as a bonus for Lee, to induce him to be more lenient with his inspections of Newcon’s work in return.”
The DPPs said that Guo also suggested that Lee be allowed to claim overtime even when Lee did not personally conduct the inspections.
Lin agreed with Guo, as they wanted the COCC project to progress smoothly, the court heard.
Prosecutors said Guo and Rajendran arranged for the false overtime claims.
Lee agreed to be part of the plan when approached, and showed leniency in allowing the inspections to “go by” without him physically inspecting the Newcon works.
It also spent less time conducting such inspections.
Court documents did not indicate how the crimes came to light, but the four men were indicted in court in July this year.
For each charge of corruption, Lee could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined up to $ 100,000.
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