Company director gave bribes to win construction project at S’pore’s defence research organisation

SINGAPORE – A former senior executive director of an engineering company has been convicted of a corruption charge, admitting in court that he had indirectly given a bribe to a staff member of the DSO National Laboratories (DSO).

Jason Chua Aik Leng on Sept 29 pleaded guilty to one charge for abetting the corrupt giving of gratification.

On its website, the DSO describes itself as Singapore’s largest defence research and development organisation, “with the critical mission to develop technological solutions to sharpen the cutting edge of Singapore’s national security”.

It was corporatised in 1997 as a company limited by guarantee under the Ministry of Defence, and renamed as DSO National Laboratories, to reflect its status as a national institution.

The seeds for the crime were planted sometime in or before 2018, according to court documents.

Poh Beng San, who was then assistant manager of DSO’s facilities management team, allegedly told sub-contractor Alex Lee Yew Huat, that DSO was looking for contractors to carry out addition and alterations works for one of its buildings.

Poh is said to have asked for a token of appreciation if the contractor secures the project.

Lee, a supervisor at Fire-Mech, a company dealing with fire protection installation and maintenance services, understood Poh’s request to mean he was asking for money in return for helping the contractor win the project.

According to Deputy Public Prosecutors Eugene Phua and Andrew Chia, Lee then reached out to Chua, who was the senior executive director and shareholder of Wah Loon Engineering (WLE), and asked him if he was willing to work together to win the project.

Lee, whose company had a regular maintenance contract with DSO, said he had inside information from someone in the organisation who could help WLE to win the project and ensure that it progressed smoothly.

Lee allegedly asked in exchange that Chua subcontract the fire protection portion to Fire-Mech, and added that about 1 per cent of the contract price if WLE wins the project should be given to someone in DSO as a token of appreciation.

After some time, Chua, 67, who handled tenders and bids for mechanical and electrical works at WLE, agreed.

In January 2018, DSO extended to four contractors in Singapore tenders for addition and alteration works for a building located at 20 Science Park Drive. Three of the firms had WLE as a subcontractor.

In April 2018, Lee allegedly told Chua that the token of appreciation would be 1.2 per cent of the contract price.

After Chua agreed to the new terms, Lee allegedly informed Poh of the outcome.

The contract was eventually awarded to New Art in September 2018, with WLE as the sub-contractor.

The project was valued at more than $46 million, with the mechanical and engineering subcontract valued at $31.7 million.

Between October 2018 and February 2019, Lee allegedly gave Poh at least $150,000 in gratification.

This was done with the help of Lau How Shing, who was the director of Yuan Li Electrical Engineering (YLE). The Malaysian agreed to facilitate the arrangement as 80 per cent of YLE’s work came from Fire-Mech.

According to prosecutors, Chua and Lee then conspired for the fire protection portion of the project to be subcontracted to YLE at an inflated price of $2,880,000, which included a $480,000 mark up.

However, this portion of the project was handled by another company, Rico Engineering at a price of $2,400,000.

YLE had sub-contracted the fire protection works to Rico Engineering, but did not undertake any actual work on the project.

Chua knew that some or all of the $480,000 mark-up would be paid to someone from DSO for the help given to win the project.

The amount was disbursed from WLE to YLE in two tranches of $240,000 each.

Each time, Lau would keep $10,000 and hand the remaining sum to Lee in cash.

Tip off

In February 2023, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) received information that Poh had allegedly been receiving gratification from contractors.

During the investigation, Chua was questioned. He admitted to his role in the corrupt scheme.

The prosecutors had sought a sentence of between 13 and 15 months’ for Chua, arguing that the corrupt arrangement involved an employee of Singapore’s largest defence research and development organisation.

They added: “Knowing that a DSO employee was involved and the value of the DSO Project, (Chua and Lee’s) actions in conspiring with each other to corruptly give gratification to Poh of not less than $150,000 would undermine public confidence in Singapore’s public administration in relation to building and construction related contracts.

“Unlike private sector corruption, this is an additional injury to society.”

The prosecutors said that Chua was motivated by financial gain in committing the offence.

Chua’s lawyers, Derek Kang and Vickie Tan from Cairnhill Law, sought a jail term of no more than five to six months, saying their client was not the initiator of the bribe.

They added that it was Lee who had approached Chua with the proposal, adding that their client had no involvement in the actual corrupt acts which took place between Lee and Poh.

The lawyers said there was also no evidence that DSO had suffered any harm as a result of Chua’s offence, or that the work done by WLE was sub-par.

Chua will be sentenced on Oct 16. Poh and Lee’s cases are still before the courts.