A former Tan Tock Seng Hospital deputy director, who solicited a bribe from a construction company in return for the tender award for a $17 million construction project, was on Thursday sentenced to six weeks in jail.

Peh Chew Seng, 49, is appealing both the sentence and his conviction last month. His bail will be trebled to $15,000 in light of the sentence.

Less than two months after joining the hospital's projects and development unit in Dec 2008, Peh had asked his friend, a director at PBT Engineering's parent company, if he was interested in tendering a project. The project involved building a four-storey temporary office annex next to the hospital. After his friend confirmed that the firm would be interested, Peh gave the firm a site visit and briefing about the project. But he was found out after giving instructions to the project consultant to disqualify the lowest tenderer for the bid, which took place in Feb 2009.

The amount of money Peh had allegedly asked for was unspecified, but no money changed hands. He could have been fined a maximum of $100,000 and jailed up to five years.