Esplanade and Arts House employee allegedly obtained over $96k in bribes
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Saburulla Abdul Gani and three company directors of two different firms were charged on Oct 31.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
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SINGAPORE - A former Esplanade and Arts House employee appeared in a district court on Oct 31 to face charges after he allegedly obtained bribes totalling more than $96,000 from three company directors of two different firms.
Saburulla Abdul Gani, 59, was handed more than 40 charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
On the same day, general contractor JYD Design and Yeoh Wee Yeong, 63, a director at the firm at the time of the alleged offences, were handed 34 charges in total.
Aceproject Construction and two of its directors then – Chew Kim Kee, 52; and Eng Kim Hai, 63 – were handed a total of 23 charges.
The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said most of the bribes were rewards to advance business interests in relation to contracts involving both arts venues and the two firms.
CPIB said that in 2005, Saburulla allegedly obtained a bribe of at least $1,000 from Yeoh in exchange for not finding faults with work done by JYD.
Saburulla is also accused of obtaining around $52,800 in bribes from Yeoh over multiple occasions between January 2011 and September 2022.
These bribes were rewards to advance the business interests in matters relating to various renovation and installation contracts between JYD and the Esplanade or the Arts House, said CPIB.
The bureau added: “Between 2009 and 2015, over separate occasions, Saburulla allegedly conspired with Yeoh and five other individuals to mislead (the Esplanade) into believing that JYD had provided the lowest quotations, which resulted in various renovation and building contracts being awarded to JYD.
“This came in the form of multiple quotations containing false statements by other companies that had no genuine intention to bid for the contracts.”
Saburulla allegedly obtained around $42,800 in bribes from Chew and Eng over separate occasions between 2018 and 2022, in relation to various renovation contracts between Aceproject and the Arts House, said CPIB.
During the same period, Saburulla also allegedly conspired with Chew and two other individuals to mislead the Arts House into believing that Aceproject had provided the lowest quotations, which resulted in various building contracts being awarded to it.
Similarly, these allegedly came in the form of multiple quotations containing false statements by other companies that had no genuine intention to bid for the contracts.
The cases involving all four Singaporeans and both firms have been adjourned to December.
