SINGAPORE - A surveyor, tasked to conduct checks on vessels, accepted a US$10,000 (S$14,196) bribe from an employee of oil giant Shell in exchange for turning a blind eye to the misappropriation of gas oil at its Pulau Bukom facility.

Rizal Zulkeflee, 38, was on Tuesday (July 5) sentenced to eight weeks' jail after he pleaded guilty to a graft charge.

He was also ordered to pay a penalty of $14,196 - the amount of bribe taken.

The court heard that in or around January 2017, Rizal accepted the money from Muzaffar Ali Khan Muhamad Akram, 41, whose case is still pending.

Rizal was among 12 surveyors who were charged in April after they allegedly accepted bribes from then Shell employees including Muzaffar and Juandi Pungot, 45.

Some of them, including Muhammad Khairul Asri Mohamad Hanafiah, 38; Anand Omprekas, 39; Paramanandham Srinivasan, 39; and Noruliman Bakti, 40, had earlier pleaded guilty to corruption.

They were each sentenced to between four weeks and eight months in jail.

On March 31, Juandi was jailed for 29 years for his role in masterminding the misappropriation of more than 200,000 tonnes of gas oil worth $128 million.

This is one of the longest prison sentences for a commercial crime.

At the time of the offences, Rizal was working for SGS Testing & Control Services Singapore, a firm that offered surveying services. Court documents did not state if he is still working at the company.

Surveyors like Rizal would check the quantity of the cargo, including gas oil, loaded into vessels. After conducting their inspections, surveyors must prepare reports to state the amount of cargo loaded.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Norman Yew said that Juandi and Muzaffar approached Rizal some time in late 2016 or early January 2017.

The DPP added: "(They) asked the accused to forbear to accurately report the amount of cargo loaded onto a vessel which SGS was engaged to inspect and to turn a blind eye to their misappropriation of gas oil at Shell Pulau Bukom, in exchange for money."

Rizal agreed to do so and accepted US$10,000 from Muzaffar.

DPP Yew said that as a result, Rizal helped Muzaffar, Juandi and their co-conspirators conceal the misappropriation of gas oil.

An incident involving the misappropriation of Shell gas oil worth more than US$275,000 went undetected in January 2017.

The offences came to light when a Shell representative lodged a police report in August 2017, stating that the company had suffered an unidentified loss of fuel amounting to about $2.98 million in April that year.

Multiple people were later charged in court over their roles in the offences.

On Tuesday, DPP Yew said that Shell has since taken numerous costly measures to improve the systems and processes at its Pulau Bukom facility since the discovery of the large-scale misappropriation.

These include installing new and additional custody transfer meters and anti-theft close-circuit television cameras, developing a monitoring software to detect potential theft of gas oil, creating new permanent positions to strengthen the supervision of key processes, and focusing on improving front-line staff performance.

The estimated cost incurred by end-2020 or to be incurred by Shell to manage the consequence of the long-term misappropriation would be in the region of $6 million, added the DPP.

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

Rizal's bail was set at $15,000 on Tuesday and he has to surrender himself at the State Courts on Aug 10 to begin serving his sentence.