2 people fined $18,200 each for bribing SBS Transit senior engineer

SINGAPORE - Two executives of a hardware product supplier agreed to give $9,260 in bribes to a senior engineer at transport provider SBS Transit.

Wendy Loh Chen Yi and her then superior Chin Tyng Lei engaged in a conspiracy to give the monies to Tan Hoon Gee, 46, as a reward for engaging their company to supply hardware parts to SBS Transit.

At the time of the offences, Loh was an assistant sales manager at Allinton Engineering & Trading, while Chin was a director there.

On Thursday, Loh, 62, and Chin, 70, each pleaded guilty to four graft charges. They were then fined $18,200 each.

Tan’s case is pending. He is no longer working for SBS Transit.

During his employment with the transport provider, his job scope included engaging vendors to supply hardware parts.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Colin Ng said that Loh got to know Tan in 2019.

SBS Transit was then looking to procure hardware parts.

Tan later told her that he was experiencing financial difficulties and needed monetary assistance.

According to court documents, Tan requested a 5 per cent commission of the sale prices in exchange for brokering the purchase of hardware parts by SBS Transit.

Loh replied that she needed to seek Chin’s approval on the matter.

The DPP said that she had a discussion with Chin around early January 2020 and urged him to agree to Tan’s request as she needed to hit her monthly sales target.

Chin then agreed with the plan.

With Tan’s recommendation, SBS Transit engaged Allinton Engineering to supply hardware parts to it on at least eight occasions between March 11 and April 29, 2020.

DPP Ng told the court that Loh handed Tan a bribe of $3,270 in May 2020.

Loh and Chin continued committing similar offences from that point until December 2020.

Court documents did not disclose how the offences came to light, but the trio were later charged with graft in 2022.

In a statement, Allinton Engineering told The Straits Times on Friday that Chin had willingly decided to step down and retire from his role as its executive director.

Its spokesman said: “(The monies) were paid out of his personal funds, which meant he suffered personal financial losses in order to comply with Tan’s demands. The payments made were never connected to (nor) claimed for reimbursement from Allinton at any point.”

“Allinton continued to charge SBS Transit prices as per normal and did not up-charge or inflate the cost of goods despite the forced commission from Tan.”

Loh is also no longer working for the firm.