SINGAPORE, Oct 10 — A Malaysian faces two counts of corruptly accepting gratification amounting to S$1,500 (RM4,565) from a customer service officer from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) as an inducement to expedite her Singapore Permanent Resident (PR) application.
If convicted of a corruption offence, Fenny Tey Hui Nee, 24, can be fined up to S$100,000 or sentenced to imprisonment of up to five years or to both.
Lucy Teo, the customer service officer, faced two counts of engaging in a conspiracy with Sharon Loo to corruptly obtain S$1,500 from Tey.
Teo, a 49-year-old Singaporean also faced 20 counts of unauthorised access into ICA’s Central Identification and Registration Information System (CIRIS) to retrieve without authority.
The access included Tey’s PR application status records on 11 occasions, one man’s passport number records on three occasions and another woman’s PR application status records on six occasions.
Loo, a 28-year-old Singaporean, meanwhile, faced two counts of engaging in the conspiracy with Teo.
Singapore Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau reminded the public officers that they have a duty to maintain the highest standards of personal conduct and integrity.
“Singapore adopts a zero-tolerance approach towards corruption. It is a serious offence to accept or obtain bribes from another individual or entity,” it said in a statement.
The Bureau said the police will deal severely with public officers who mishandle any government systems and the data therein, including charging them in court.
Any person who is guilty of knowingly causing a computer to perform any function for the purpose of securing access without authority to any program or data held in any computer can be fined up to S$5,000 or jailed up to two years or to both, it said. — Bernama
