Ex-director at zoo admits obtaining over $2.4m in bribes and awarding jobs to firms in exchange
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Barry Chong received the money from multiple people, including employees of companies that performed works for the zoo.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
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SINGAPORE - The facilities management director at the Singapore Zoological Gardens, a subsidiary of Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), obtained more than $2.4 million in bribes between July 2005 and October 2016.
Barry Chong Peng Wee, 57, who is no longer working for the zoo, received the money from multiple people,
Also known as Danial Chong, he used his ill-gotten gains to buy items such as family cars, clothes, luxury watches and bags.
On Feb 18, Chong pleaded guilty to multiple counts of graft. He is expected to be sentenced in April.
Some of his offences involved marked-up invoices and quotations from the companies, so that he could obtain the inflated portions as “commissions”.
Court documents stated that WRS, now known as the Mandai Wildlife Group, suffered a loss of more than $2.4 million as a result of the inflated invoices submitted under the corrupt arrangements.
The prosecution said Chong’s offences were linked to multiple firms, including Shin Yong Construction (SYC), Thiam Lee Tradings Construction, KK Iron Engineering, Katana Engineering, Hong Power Engineering and KKS Engineering.
Deputy public prosecutors Kelvin Chong, Shamini Joseph and Darren Sim stated in court documents that WRS had awarded jobs to the companies during the period of the corrupt arrangements.
Each company was awarded jobs worth between $14,300 and over $10.5 million. The court heard that SYC was awarded jobs involving the largest sums of money.
Multiple individuals linked to most of the companies
The DPPs said SYC was set up by the late Mr Toh Siang Bee and WRS was its main client.
Some time before 2005, Mr Toh, his son, Too Say Kiong, and Chong entered into an arrangement in which WRS jobs were awarded to SYC in exchange for “monetary commissions”.
When Mr Toh died, another one of his sons, Toh Say Yong, took his place in SYC in 2005.
Toh Say Yong, Too and Chong continued to commit graft.
In 2024, Too, then 57, was sentenced to two years and two months’ jail, was sentenced to a year and 10 months’ jail
As part of the plan, Chong would send the specifications of each project or job to Too.
Chong would tell Too to bid at a specific price to ensure the project or job would be awarded to SYC.
Too would clear with Toh Say Yong an amount to give to Chong as “commission” and prepare inflated invoices or quotations at the prices Chong had specified. The brothers would also ask other contractors to submit bids that were slightly higher than SYC’s to ensure WRS awarded the jobs to SYC.
The quotations WRS received were then collated and presented to Chong and his colleagues.
He would generally award the jobs to the lowest quotes received.
In late 2013 or early 2014, Chong and Too agreed to look for other contractors to take part in the corrupt arrangement. The DPPs said Too approached representatives from Thiam Lee and Katana, telling them WRS would award jobs to the firms in exchange for money.
Court documents stated that the representatives agreed to be part of the plan.
Some time around 2010 to 2011, Toh Say Yong’s son, Toh Yong Soon, started working for SYC and continued with the corrupt arrangements after taking over the firm’s operations from Too in late 2015.
Toh Yong Soon, then 39, was sentenced to three years and three months’ jail
Shaffiq Alkhatib is The Straits Times’ court correspondent, covering mainly criminal cases heard at the State Courts.
