Ex-PUB employee gets jail for accepting bribes and falsifying accounts

As part of his duties, an assistant engineer at national water agency PUB supervised water diversion works performed by contractors and subcontractors.

While overseeing Pipe Works, a water and gas pipeline subcontractor, Jamaludin Mohamed approached its project manager and agreed to facilitate and expedite the firm's works in exchange for money. Over about nine months, he collected a total of $45,169.

Yesterday, Jamaludin, 58, was given nine months' jail for accepting bribes and a further 10 weeks for trying to obtain a bribe from a civil engineering firm.

He was sentenced to a further two weeks' jail for falsification of accounts, which will run concurrently with his other sentences. He was also asked to pay the sum he received as a penalty, in default of three months' jail. He had pleaded guilty to these offences.

PUB dismissed Jamaludin in January this year, following an internal investigation into misconduct. That investigation was unrelated to his alleged corruption offences.

Jamaludin who appeared in court via video link yesterday, was represented by Mr Ashvin Hariharan. The lawyer asked for a reduced sentence for his client, citing a past case where a director at a technology firm had attempted to bribe a government official.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Charis Low responded that compared with private citizens, "public servants are held to higher standards". District Judge Lim Tse Haw agreed, saying the offender's role in PUB cannot be understated and his culpability was therefore higher, but noted that he pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

Jamaludin approached Pipe Works' project manager Ganisan Suppiah with his proposition some time in November 2017.

DPP Low said "the accused helped facilitate and expedite Pipe Works' works through means such as asking the main contractor to submit documentation quickly so that (Ganisan)'s workers could start work early, or giving (his) workers priority to lay the pipes at the sites".

After Pipe Works received payment from the main contractors, Ganisan handed the agreed fees to Jamaludin in cash between November 2017 and August 2018, through meet-ups at various coffee shops. Using a company set up in his son's name, Jamaludin prepared false invoices to bill Pipe Works for fictitious cleaning services at various work sites, receiving gratification in cash instead.

Ganisan was charged in August with one count of corruption and two of abetting Jamaludin in falsifying invoices. His case is at the pre-trial conference stage.

In July 2019, Jamaludin became acquainted with a management executive who oversaw the sales and projects of Teacly, a civil engineering firm. He arranged for a meeting on July 25, at which he said he could help Teacly secure a PUB contract it had submitted a bid for. He asked for $500,000 in exchange, but the executive rejected the proposal the next day.

Mitigating for his client, Mr Ashvin said Jamaludin had a clean record before these offences and had been given a long service award and a model employee award during his time at PUB. He said the reason his client took the money was because his son had a heart condition.

In response, DPP Low said Jamaludin's son was born in March 2018, but that his offences had started earlier.

For each bribery charge, Jamaludin could have been jailed for up to five years, fined $100,000 or both. For falsification of accounts, he could have been jailed for up to 10 years, fined or both.

Judge Lim backdated the sentence to Aug 26, when Jamaludin was arrested.