Two South Korean nationals were jailed for eight months on Tuesday (18 May) for giving bribes to a Land Transport Authority (LTA) deputy director.
The two men, who pleaded guilty on 7 May, were among the first to do so in the complex corruption case according to TODAYonline. They each face a charge of conspiring to bribe ex-LTA director Henry Foo Yung Thye with S$30,000.
Another charge, involving a loan of S$20,000, was taken into consideration during sentencing.
So, what exactly happened with Foo?
Shockingly, it was uncovered that he had taken about S$1.24 million in bribes in the form of loans to advance contractors or subcontractors’ business interests with LTA.
With great power comes great money… and great responsibility.
According to charge sheets, he had taken amounts of money of between S$1,000 and S$200,000 from multiple directors of firms. Foo was supervising the construction of the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) and the Cross Island Line (CRL) at the time.
Feared Offending Foo
Kim Young-Gyu, 52 and Ro Sungyong, 49, worked on the construction of Stevens MRT Station as the project director and the project manager of Daewoo Engineering and Construction respectively. The Korean company was awarded the tender by LTA in 2014.
The duo began meeting with Foo for official quarterly meetings in 2015.
As reported by CNA, Foo was part of the tender steering committee and chairman of the tender evaluation committee for the project and had powers to commit the LTA to additional expenditures.
Initially, Ro felt that Foo was “difficult to talk to” and demanding towards Daewoo.
In 2018, Foo approached Ro and asked for a loan, citing that he had financial problems. As Ro was afraid of offending Foo, he told the ex-director that he would discuss the matter with Kim.
However, Kim rejected the request as he knew that Daewoo had strong compliance policies against the payment of money to clients and that such actions were illegal in Singapore.
Despite rejecting Foo, he did not waver and the duo felt that they had to give in to his requests, given his position at LTA and in the project.
Kim said he feared that if they offended Foo, he would “apply time-pressure” on Daewoo for the project and influence the LTA’s inspections of their work.
Ro also thought a favourable relationship with Foo was important, as he said Foo had been demanding of Daewoo in their compliance with safety and environmental regulations.
They also thought that lending Foo money would allow them to be awarded more projects from LTA in the future.
Kim told Ro to handle the loan, promising him the position of project director and a S$5,000 increase in gross monthly pay from his current salary of S$15,000.
According to TODAYonline, the two South Koreans first gave Foo S$20,000 in mid-2018, then another S$30,000 at the end of the same year.
Apparently, Foo also assured Ro that he would return the money, but obviously, he never got to it.
Helped Cover Up Safety Infringements
On 3 May 2019, Ro approached Foo with the intent of asking him for help in covering up Daewoo’s breach of safety and cleanliness regulations at the Stevens MRT construction site. Earlier, an LTA officer had inspected the area and given it a negative score.
He was worried that the score would affect Daewoo’s bid for a project on the Jurong Region MRT Line—which it did.
Despite Foo intervening to talk to LTA’s group director for safety and contracts as he felt indebted to the two men, Daewoo was not awarded the contract.
Later in 2019, the duo again asked for Foo’s help in finding out why Daewoo had failed in the first stage of the LTA tendering process for the construction of tunnels at Changi Airport.
Obtaining a screenshot of the confidential LTA tender evaluation committee’s assessment, Foo sent it to Ro and told him not to tell anyone.
Investigation
When the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) first interviewed Ro, he had lied about the bribes given and pointed to a Daewoo subcontractor as the perpetrator.
However, investigations showed that their accounts did not correspond to the amount Ro had revealed.
Ro later admitted that he had paid the bribe to Foo using his personal rental income from a piece of property in Seoul. Of course, both Kim and Ro hid the incident from Daewoo’s headquarters.
Both men have been sentenced to eight months’ jail while the cases for the other co-accused are currently pending.
Foo will be attending a pre-trial conference in June. He faces a staggering 36 charges, including taking bribes from contractors or subcontractors and cheating his colleagues into giving him loans between 2008 and 2019.
Feature Image: Atstock Productions / Shutterstock.com
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