2 jailed for submitting fake tender to NLB to help another firm win $4.7m contract
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On Sept 23, Kwa Kaoh Wee (left) and Soh Ling Ling pleaded guilty to one corruption charge each.
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SINGAPORE - A company director allowed his firm to submit a fake tender to the National Library Board (NLB) to help another company win a contract worth more than $4.7 million, believing that the latter would give part of the project to his company.
The ruse came to light when the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau began investigating NLB assistant director Adrian Chan Siew Leng,
On Sept 23, Kwa Kaoh Wee and Soh Ling Ling pleaded guilty to one corruption charge each.
Kwa was sentenced to a month’s jail while Soh was sentenced to two weeks’ imprisonment.
The court heard that at the time of the offence, Kwa was the managing director and sole shareholder of Multimedia Maestro, referred to as MM in court. Its primary business include cinema maintenance and broadcast consultancy.
Soh was an administrative manager in the company. She became a director in the firm in 2019.
A search on Singapore’s business registry showed the pair are still co-directors of at least two other companies.
In March 2018, the NLB opened a tender to commission a fully operational digital cinema system at the Oldham Theatre, of which Chan was the project lead.
Around that period, Chan had indicated to an associate, John Paul Tan Wei Ming, that he wanted the tender to be awarded to Electronics and Engineering, referred to as E&E.
The prosecution did not elaborate on why Chan wanted the tender to be awarded to E&E.
Chan told Tan, a co-accused, to find at least two other companies to submit bids higher than E&E’s to ensure that the tender would proceed.
This would also ensure E&E’s bid would appear the most attractive. Tan then spoke to another co-accused named Fong Choon Yew, 52, who in turn informed his subordinate, Ho Chan Shen, 57, to contact MM to make the fake tender bid.
The court heard that Ho contacted Kwa and told him to submit a tender bid for the project.
The prosecution said Kwa understood the ramifications behind the request but decided to proceed as he believed E&E could give a part of the project to his company if E&E was awarded the tender.
Kwa then told Ho to contact Soh for the paperwork.
The prosecution said Soh had understood that Ho was asking for MM to submit a bid to help E&E win the tender. She and Kwa agreed to help.
In April 2018, Tan sent MM a quotation he had prepared for Soh to submit for the tender. The prices indicated in the quotation were significantly higher than E&E’s bid.
E&E won the five-year contract valued at more than $4.7 million in June 2018.
The prosecution said in this case, Kwa’s culpability appeared higher than Soh’s as he was her superior at the time of the offence.
The prosecution added that all the co-accused in the case have been charged.
The cases involving Fong and Ho have been fixed for a pre-trial conference on Oct 1.
