SINGAPORE - A former resident technical officer of manpower service firm Surbana Site Supervisors appeared in a district court on Wednesday (April 27) after he allegedly obtained bribes totalling $50,500 from multiple sub-contractors.

Seow Koon Thong, 59, is said to have committed the offences in exchange for refraining from showing disfavour to them when he assessed their work at Rivervale Shores - a Build-To-Order project in Sengkang launched in 2017.

He now faces nine graft charges and is accused of committing the offences from 2018 to last year.

He allegedly obtained bribes from the directors of seven companies and an employee of one firm.

At the time of the alleged offences, the directors of those firms were: Ang Sek Chai from MW Dynamics, Yue Shien Chin from Sun Power Electrical, Chan Chew Leh from Reclaims Enterprise, Sun Guiyang from Sun Jin Hong Construction, Sun Jinjiang from Sheng Yi Construction, Chen Zijie from Hong Ann Jie Contractor and Chen Xiaoguang from He Shun Xin Construction.

Seow is accused of obtaining bribes of between $2,000 and $22,500 from each of them.

He is also said to have obtained $6,000 from Ong Teck Keong, who was an employee of Sun Power Electrical at the time.

The court heard on Wednesday that Seow intends to plead guilty to his charges. He will be back in court on June 10.

In a statement, infrastructure consultancy Surbana Jurong Group said that it takes a very serious view of the case.

Its spokesman said: "We are certified to ISO 37001 anti-bribery management systems.

"Once the case was detected, we gave our full cooperation to (the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau) and took appropriate actions, including reminding colleagues about our 'no gifts' policy and business conduct guidelines that help us uphold honesty and integrity in all our business dealings."

For each graft charge, an offender can be jailed for up to five years and fined up to $100,000.