KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28 — A Singapore court has sentenced a Malaysian to prison for 14 months yesterday after he pleaded guilty to five counts of graft charges involving S$142,000 (RM474,000), the Straits Times (ST) reported.
The Malaysian, Chong Chee Wai, 48, was accused of handing bribes worth more than S$235,000 to a director of facilities management at the Singapore Zoological Gardens — now known as the Singapore Zoo.
Chong, who is a Singapore permanent resident, is expected to commence his sentence on September 27 this year.
ST reported as the result of the bribes which occurred between 2014 and 2015, the company Katana Engineering — which was then owned by Chong — was awarded contracts worth nearly S$1.93 million.
The court also reportedly considered 15 other counts of charges related to the remaining amounts of the bribes.
The court has yet to hear the case involving the recipient of the bribes, Barry Chong Peng Wee, 57. He was then a director at Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) — now known as Mandai Wildlife Group — which owns Singapore Zoo and had awarded the contract to Katana Engineering.
Too Say Kiong, a foreman at a firm called Shin Yong Construction (SYC) linked to the contract, had already been sentenced to two years and two months’ jail in October last year.
According to prosecutors, Barry had come up with a corrupt scheme with SYC and Too to ensure that WRS-related contracts went to that company. Too then roped in Chong into the plan as the contractor.
