Ex-PUB officer, piping works firm employee charged in corruption case
Former PUB assistant engineer allegedly took about $45k in bribes, falsified accounts
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A former assistant engineer of national water agency PUB was yesterday charged with accepting around $45,000 in bribes and falsifying invoices.
Jamaludin Mohamed, 58, faces three counts of corruption and two of falsifying accounts. He was allegedly bribed by Ganisan Suppiah, 51, who was the project manager of a company called Pipe Works.
Ganisan, who was also charged yesterday, faces one count of corruption and two of abetting Jamaludin in falsifying invoices.
Court documents state that Jamaludin allegedly accepted bribes of around $45,000 from Ganisan in exchange for facilitating and expediting work by Pipe Works that he supervised.
The gratification is said to have changed hands on multiple occasions between 2017 and 2018.
Sometime in July 2019, Jamaludin allegedly attempted to obtain a bribe of $500,000 from another piping works company in exchange for supporting its bid for a tender to replace water mains.
That same month, he allegedly tried to get bribes from a construction company for the same tender.
Both companies rejected him.
Between Nov 16 and Nov 23, 2017, Jamaludin also allegedly prepared fake invoices under a company he set up to receive bribes from Ganisan.
Jamaludin told the court that he intends to plead guilty to his offences.
PUB said in a statement that Jamaludin was dismissed in January this year, following an internal investigation of misconduct. That investigation was unrelated to his alleged corruption offences.
"Indications of Jamaludin's alleged corruption offences were first uncovered by PUB in July 2019 and promptly brought to the attention of the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau," the agency said.
"As he has now been formally charged and his case is before the courts, we are unable to offer further comment."
If convicted of corruption, Jamaludin and Ganisan can each be fined up to $100,000 or jailed for up to five years, or both.
If the offence is related to a matter or contract with the Government or a public body, the maximum jail term for each offence can be increased to seven years.
The offence of falsifying accounts carries a maximum penalty of 10 years' jail and a fine.
