Jail for businessman over at least $324k in bribes to Wildlife Reserves Singapore staff

SINGAPORE – The owner of an engineering firm worked together with another man to give at least $324,000 in bribes to a Singapore Zoological Gardens director.

On Thursday, Tan Chuan Hong, 47, pleaded guilty to three graft charges involving at least $223,200 and was sentenced to 14 months’ jail. Five other similar charges relating to the remaining amount were considered during sentencing.

The prosecution said that Tan, who was then a director at Hong Power Engineering (HPE), conspired with Toh Yong Soon, 38, to give bribes to Barry Chong Peng Wee, 56, on multiple occasions between March and October 2016.

The offences involved inflated invoices for projects linked to Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), of which the zoo is a subsidiary. The invoices were marked up by 30 to 35 per cent.

According to court documents, Chong would then receive around 35 per cent of the marked up bid price.

Chong was then the director of facilities management at the zoo and his duties included managing procurement requests for works at the attraction. The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said in a statement in 2021 that Chong had left WRS, now known as Mandai Wildlife Group.

At the time of offences, WRS contracts awarded to HPE amounted to approximately $977,000.

It is estimated that WRS suffered a loss of around $225,480 as a result of the inflated invoices that HPE submitted under the corrupt arrangement.

The cases involving Chong and Toh are pending.

At the time of Tan’s offences, Toh was a project manager for a firm called Shin Yong Construction (SYC) that handles civil engineering jobs.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Kelvin Chong, Shamini Joseph and Darren Sim stated in court documents that Chong entered into a corrupt arrangement with key personnel of SYC in 2005.

They added that Chong would ensure that WRS-related jobs were awarded to SYC in exchange for monetary commissions.

Toh, who is also known as Chris, started managing SYC’s operations in 2015. The prosecution said that he continued the corrupt arrangement with Chong.

The DPPs said: “Under this agreement, Chris was to recruit other contractors into (it). Barry would tell Chris a specific price to bid at to ensure that a job was awarded by WRS to SYC or the other contractors.

“Chris and the group of contractors would then collude to put in bids for WRS jobs at the specified prices, where some parties would put in bids higher than the bid price given by Barry.”

Jobs would generally be awarded to firms which had given the lowest quotes.

The DPPs said that as reward, SYC or the contractor awarded the jobs would have to give Chong roughly 35 per cent of the bid price, which were marked up.

Some time around August to September 2015, Toh engaged HPE as SYC’s subcontractor to provide electrical installation to WRS in relation to works at the zoo.

The prosecution told the court that around March 2016, Toh approached Tan, asking him if he wanted to know the amounts to state in his quotations for projects with WRS in order to secure them.

In return, the court heard that Tan would have to pass Toh a commission of between 30 and 35 per cent from HPE’s quoted amount to WRS.

According to court documents, the monies would be given to a “boss” in WRS in exchange for the bid information.

The quoted amounts to WRS would also be inflated by about 30 to 35 per cent to account for the payment of the commissions.

Tan was also told that Toh would be receiving a cut for collecting the money on behalf of “boss”, said the DPPs.

Tan, who believed that the “boss” in question was Chong, accepted the offer.

Tan committed the offences multiple times in 2016. They ended when the CPIB started its investigation into the case in October that year.

A search with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority reveals that Tan is no longer a director at HPE. However, he is still an owner of another firm called Hong Electrical Power Engineering.