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Ex-PUB officer charged for corruption, falsifying accounts

Photo taken in Surin, Thailand
PHOTO: Getty Images

SINGAPORE — Between 2017 and 2018, Jamaludin Mohamed allegedly obtained bribes amounting to $45,000 from an external project manager, and prepared fake invoices under a company he had set up to receive such monies.

The former Public Utilities Board (PUB) assistant manager was even said to have solicited a bribe of half a million dollars from a company which submitted a bid for a PUB tender in 2019.

On Friday (27 August), the 58-year-old was slapped with a total of three charges for alleged corruption and Penal Code offences. He will face one charge under Section 6(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) read with Section 124(4) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), and two charges under Section 6(a) of the PCA.

Meanwhile, Ganisan Suppiah, 51, a former project manager with Pipe Works Pte Ltd, will also face one charge under Section 6(b) of the PCA read with Section 124(4) of the CPC.

Jamaludin is said to have obtained gratification of about $45,000 on multiple occasions from Ganisan, in return for facilitating and expediting works performed by Pipe Works and supervised by himself. On or about 16 and 23 November 2017, he allegedly prepared fake invoices under a company he had set up to receive monies from Ganisan.

Sometime in July 2019, Jamaludin also allegedly attempted to obtain a $500,000 bribe. In the same month, he similarly attempted to obtain a bribe of an unspecified amount from another company in relation to the same PUB tender.

The alleged bribe attempts were purportedly in return for assisting the companies with their bids for the PUB tender. The companies rejected his requests.

This is the second case of graft in the public sector to come to light in recent days.

On Thursday, former Land Transport Authority (LTA) deputy group director Henry Foo Yung Thye admitted to receiving $1.2 million in bribes from 2016 to 2018, consisting of loans from contractors and sub-contractors.

Any person convicted of a corruption offence can be fined up to $100,000 or sentenced to imprisonment of up to five years or both. The maximum imprisonment term for each offence of corruption can be increased to seven years if it is in relation to a matter or contract with the government or public body, or a sub-contract to execute work comprised in such contract.

Any person convicted of falsifying accounts under Section 477A of the Penal Code can be fined or sentenced to imprisonment of up to 10 years, or to both.

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