SINGAPORE, Oct 5 — Over the course of a decade, Too Kay Siong, 57, would pass more than S$760,000 (RM2.6 million) in bribes to executives at Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) to ensure that his construction company and several other firms would submit winning bids for WRS tenders.

Besides being the intermediary between the various parties, Too also recruited other companies to take part in the price-fixing scheme, and received between S$20,000 and S$30,000 for the role he played.

For his actions, Too, who worked as a foreman in the construction company founded by his late father, was sentenced to 26 months’ jail after pleading guilty to 10 counts of conspiring to give corrupt gratification.

Another 104 similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

The Singaporean is one of 12 individuals, including two WRS staff members, to be implicated in the bribery scheme.

One of the former WRS officers, Chin Fong Yi, 46, was sentenced to jail and ordered to pay a penalty in March last year for receiving the bribes. The case of former WRS director Barry Chong Peng Wee, 56, who allegedly received more than S$2.4 million in gratuities, is still pending.

What happened

The court heard that at the time of the offences, Too worked as a foreman at Shin Yong Construction, the construction company founded by his late father Toh Siang Bee. The company’s main customer at the time was WRS, said prosecutors.

Too’s work includes looking over the company’s operations, and is also involved in tendering for construction jobs and helping to prepare job quotations.

Sometime before 2005, the accused and his late father allegedly entered into an arrangement with Barry Chong, who was the director of facilities management at the Singapore Zoo at the time. The zoo is a subsidiary of WRS.

Under the arrangement, Chong, who is also known as Danial Chong, would ensure that WRS jobs would be awarded to Too’s company in exchange for a "commission”, which were handed to him in cash by Too.

The court also heard that Too’s elder brother, Toh Say Yong, took over their father’s place in the company sometime in 2005 after the latter passed away. Prosecutors said that Too’s brother also conspired with Barry to ensure that WRS-related jobs were awarded to Shin Yong Construction in exchange for a "monetary commission of roughly 10 per cent mark up in the bid price given to WRS”.

Chong would allegedly inform Toh Say Yong through the accused the bid price the company should put.

Either Too or Toh would ask other contractors to put in slightly higher bids than their company’s quote so that WRS would award the job to Shin Yong Construction. The court heard that such contracts were typically awarded to the lowest bidder.

Through the corrupt arrangements, Too’s company was awarded jobs valued at about S$9.09 million in total.

When former RWS manager Chin began suspecting that a price-fixing arrangement was happening sometime in 2010 or 2011, Too forked out over S$50,000 in bribes to silence her. Chin has been jailed and fined for receiving bribes.

Court documents also stated that in late 2013 or early 2014, Chong asked Too to find other contractors to participate in a similar corrupt arrangement, where these companies reward him monetarily in exchange for WRS jobs to be awarded to them. The bribes would be paid to Chong through Too.

Three other companies were awarded jobs totalling between S$1.7 million to S$2.70 million per company, while a fifth firm received jobs worth S$14,300, the court heard.

According to court documents, Too received between S$20,000 and S$30,000 for facilitating their alleged corrupt arrangement with Chong.

The total amount of bribes that Too gave was over S$760,000 in total, including those in relation to the charges that were taken into consideration.

Said the prosecutors: "It is estimated that WRS suffered loss of around S$1,400,000 as a result of the inflated invoices submitted under the corrupt arrangement between the accused and the co-accused persons.”

Not just a ‘courier’

Seeking a total sentence of between 24 and 30 months, Deputy Public Prosecutor Kelvin Chong pointed to the scale and sophistication of the scheme and the harm caused.

Besides the losses suffered by WRS and the amount of bribes involved, the prosecutors argued that third-party contractors were deprived of a fair opportunity to bid for for jobs.

In Too’s mitigation plea, defence counsel Tan Cheng Kiong sought a lighter sentence, adding that the long time it took for the case to conclude has worsened his client’s severe anxiety disorders.

Mr Tan argued that though the amount involved was significant, it was not Too who paid them, and that he was a "courier” who had no control over the amount of bribes being given.

While he did not deny that his client played a part in the scheme, he argued that the role was "not that critical” given how the scheme continued even after he left his company.

Mr Tan did not mention when Too left the company.

In reply, DPP Chong said the offences only came to light sometime in 2016 and the investigations took a long time due to the scale of the offences, adding that this timeline ought not to be taken as a mitigating factor for Too.

On Too’s role, the prosecutor highlighted that Too played a part in recruiting people into the scheme and was present at the beginning when the corrupt practice was first established.

Delivering his brief sentencing remarks, District Judge Lim Tse Haw said he took into consideration Too’s guilty plea and clean record before the offences.

However, the judge added he also took into account the huge loss suffered by WRS and the "syndicated nature” of the arrangement, which involved five companies.

For each count of conspiring to give corrupt gratification, Too could have been sentenced to a fine not exceeding S$100,000, a jail term of no longer than five years, or both. — TODAY