Two jailed for fake tender to help another firm win contract
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, 48, for a series of corruption and cheating charges.
On Sept 23, Kwa Kaoh Wee, referred to as Ed in court, and Soh Ling Ling, referred to as Adele, pleaded guilty to one corruption charge each.
Ed was sentenced to a month’s jail, while Adele was sentenced to two weeks imprisonment.
The court heard that at the time of the offences, Ed 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.
Adele 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 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 this company.
He then told the associate, a co-accused referred to as John Paul, 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. John Paul then spoke to another co-accused named Fong Choon Yew, 52, but referred to as Joe, who in turn informed his subordinate, Ho Chan Shen, 57, referred to as Joseph, to contact MM to make the fake tender bid.
The court heard that Joseph contacted Ed and told him to submit a tender bid for the project.
The prosecution said Ed understood the ramifications behind the request, but decided to proceed as he believed E&E may give a part of the project to his company if E&E was awarded the tender.
Ed then told Joseph to contact Adele for the paperwork.
The prosecution said Adele had understood that Joseph was asking for MM to submit a bid to help E&E win the tender. She and Ed both agreed to help.
In April 2018, John Paul sent MM a quotation he had prepared to Adele, for her 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, Ed’s culpability appeared higher than Adele as he was her superior at the time of the offence.
The prosecution added all co-accused in the case have been charged.
Both Joe and Joseph’s case have been fixed for a pre-trial conference on Oct 1.
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