SINGAPORE: A senior engineer at SBS Transit asked for money from the owner of a vendor supplying services to the transport company, in order to pay off his debts and handphone bills.
Lau Yuen Fai, 61, was fined S$3,600 and ordered to pay a penalty of S$1,350 for his crimes on Thursday (Jan 19).
Lau pleaded guilty to two counts under the Prevention of Corruption Act of accepting gratification in exchange for engaging the vendor for jobs. A third charge was taken into consideration.
The court heard that Lau got to know Poh Beng Chye, the sole proprietor of Clear Cut Engineering which fabricated and supplied machine parts and carried out maintenance jobs, during his previous employment.
Lau worked at Sembawang Shipyard between 1996 and 2001, and became acquainted with Poh there. They became friends and shared a good relationship, the court heard.
After Lau left the shipyard, he joined the rolling stock department of SBS Transit as a technical support senior executive in April 2001.
In 2007 or 2008, through Lau’s recommendation, Poh’s company CCE was appointed as an approved vendor of SBS Transit to carry out fabrication and maintenance jobs and supply machinery parts to the transport firm.
As an approved vendor, CCE would submit quotations to SBS Transit for consideration to be selected for jobs, with the latter considering quotations submitted by different vendors before deciding on who to award the job to.
In 2016 or 2017, Lau was promoted to senior engineer at SBS Transit. As part of his job scope, he was to help with procuring machinery parts and engaging vendors. He was also in a position to approach vendors for quotations.
While Lau was not in the position to give final approval on which vendor to award jobs to, he was responsible for deciding which vendor to obtain quotations from, so he was able to ensure that CCE’s quotations would always be considered by the head of department or section head.
In May 2019, Lau ran into money problems and approached Poh for help, knowing that Poh would not reject him.
This was because Poh did not want to offend Lau and instead wanted to build a good relationship with Lau, so that CCE would be in good stead for jobs with SBS Transit.
Despite knowing that it was wrong and improper, Lau solicited money from Poh. He got a loan of S$800 from Poh to pay his handphone bills in May 2019.
In May 2021, Lau asked Poh for a loan of S$1,000 to repay his debts and Poh handed him the amount in cash.
This was done in Poh’s car, as Lau did not want his colleagues to see him taking money from Poh.
In total, Lau took S$2,050 from Poh. In exchange, he engaged CCE to carry out jobs for SBS Transit on at least 28 occasions.
The duo did not discuss any repayment plan for the “loans”, and Poh did not demand repayment.
Lau claimed that he repaid S$600 to S$700 to Poh.
Lau has no prior convictions.
The prosecutor asked for a fine of S$3,600 and a penalty order of S$1,350.
He said CCE benefitted from the corrupt transactions, as it was able to secure jobs from SBS Transit without having to go through a fair competition with other vendors.
Poh had pleaded guilty in November and was fined S$2,000 for his role.