Seven individuals, including staff and subcontractors of Keppel FELS, charged with corruption

SEVEN individuals, including an employee and three subcontractors of Keppel FELS - a wholly-owned unit of Keppel Offshore & Marine - were charged in court on Wednesday with offences related to obtaining, accepting and giving gratification between 2014 and 2017.

Alvin Lim Wee Lun, a 40-year-old yard manager at Keppel FELS, Goh Ngak Eng and Rajavikraman Jayapandian were charged with 46 counts of abetment by conspiring with one another to corruptly obtain S$879,900 in gratification from three directors of firms that are Keppel FELS' subcontractors, according to a statement issued by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB).

These subcontractors at the material time were Titan Offshore Equipment Pte Ltd's director U Keh Choon, Spectrama Marine & Industrial Supplies Pte Ltd director Stanley Goh Sheng Li and Growa F.E. Pte Ltd managing director Fatkullah Tiap. It is alleged that the gratifications served as an inducement to further the business interests of these companies with Keppel FELS.

All three - U, Stanley Goh and Fatkullah - were charged on Wednesday for corruptly giving gratification through Goh under offences that are punishable under Section 6(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, Chapter 241.

Titan's U, a 50-year-old Singapore permanent resident, was charged with seven counts of corruptly giving S$196,700 in gratification to Goh, Lim, and Rajavikraman, while Stanley Goh, 33, of Spectrama, was charged with 21 counts of corruptly giving S$190,900 to the three men. Fatkullah, 59, was charged with 18 counts of corruptly giving S$492,300 in gratification to the trio.

In addition, Rajavikraman, 45, was also charged with three counts of corruptly obtaining S$7,000 in gratification from Goh as a reward for furthering the business interest of a marine equipment manufacturer with another company in the same line of business.

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Apart from the three counts of corruptly giving gratification to Rajavikraman, Goh, 54, was also charged with 10 counts of corruptly giving S$15,100 in gratification to Ong Tun Chai as a reward for Ong preparing fictitious invoices on a logistics company's letterhead.

In turn, Ong, 48, was charged with 10 counts of corruptly accepting the gratification from Goh, and 20 counts of wilfully and with intent to defraud, falsifying papers belonging to a logistics company that were issued to Growa and Titan. These were done to reflect services requested by Growa and Titan when they were not, according to the CPIB statement.

All the individuals charged are Singaporeans, except for U.

"Singapore adopts a strict zero-tolerance approach towards corruption. Any person who is convicted of a corruption offence can be fined up to S$100,000 or sentenced to imprisonment of up to five years or both," said CPIB.

The anti-corruption agency reminded companies to install robust procedures in procurement and internal audit to prevent falling victim to corrupt acts by employees.

Separately, a Keppel FELS spokesperson said: "We are aware that a former facilities manager from Keppel FELS, Alvin Lim, is being charged by CPIB for corruption. He was dismissed from the company in 2019 for breaching Keppel's Code of Conduct.

"We have extended our full cooperation to the authorities, and are unable to comment further as court proceedings are ongoing."

The spokesperson added: "We take a serious view of any corrupt act and will not tolerate any employee conduct that is illegal. All employees of the Keppel Group are required to abide by the Keppel Code of Conduct, which prohibits, among others, bribery and corruption."