Four men were charged in court yesterday with abetting to give bribes of between $100 and $450 to technicians to go easy in their inspections of their electrical facilities.
Chinese national Li Chen, 33, faces three charges while Malaysian Nyap Fat Ming alias Richard Nyap, 61, Myanmar national Aung Myat Wynn, 32, and Bangladeshi Mohammad Jasim Uddin Habej Uddin, 34, were charged with one count each.
Li allegedly gave two sums of $100 to then SP Services' technician Jasman Tiron, 55. This so that the technician would not be difficult in his inspection of Great Resources M&E Contractor's electrical board installations in Havelock Road and Woodlands Crescent on Sept 26, 2011, and Nov 29, 2013, respectively.
The third charge states that he abetted by conspiring with Aung and Mohammad Jasim to corruptly give $450 to induce SP PowerGrid's then technician Muhamad Ridhuan Ramli, 33, not to be difficult in inspecting Hong Dat Engineering's electrical board installations in Punggol Drive on Aug 8, 2014.
Nyap is accused of abetment by instigating Li to give technician Jasman $100 so that he would go easy when inspecting Great Resources' electrical installations in Havelock Road.
Aung faces a charge of abetting an offence by conspiring with Li and Mohammad Jasim to give $450 to Ridhuan to go easy when checking Hong Dat's electrical board installations in Punggol Drive.
Mohammad Jasim was charged with abetment by conspiring with Li and Aung to give $450 to Ridhuan in Punggol Drive.
All except Mohammad Jasim were represented by lawyers. He told the court through an interpreter that he wished to engage a lawyer. His case will be mentioned on June 17 while the other three will be back in court on July 8.
Jasman and Ridhuan were convicted and sentenced to six weeks' and two weeks' jail respectively earlier this year. They were each ordered to pay a penalty of $200.
A Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau statement said Singapore adopts a zero tolerance approach towards corruption.
The bureau takes a serious view of any corrupt practices and will not hesitate to take action against any party involved in such acts.
The maximum penalty for corruption is a $100,000 fine and five years' jail.
Update: Nyap has been acquitted as of Feb 7, 2017.
