Jail and fine for supply company’s director for bribing SMRT assistant buyer

SINGAPORE – After failing to win two contracts with SMRT, a director of a company that supplied parts began bribing an assistant buyer from the transport company to obtain confidential information.

Between 2017 and 2019, Wong King Mooi gave SMRT’s Soh Choon Heng at least $29,500 in cash on at least eight occasions.

On Thursday, the 48-year-old Malaysian was sentenced to four months’ jail and fined $4,000 after she pleaded guilty to three corruption charges. Two similar charges were taken into consideration during her sentencing.

Soh, who had accepted bribes from the directors of three firms, was sentenced to 21 months’ jail in January 2023.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Louis Ngia said Wong was acquainted with Soh through the course of their work.

Wong was a director and shareholder at CEE Technologies and directed the daily operations of the company, including its quotations to compete for contracts.

The company supplied SMRT parts for its operations, such as those for its passenger service doors and train gearboxes.

As SMRT’s assistant buyer, Soh was responsible for supporting SMRT’s procurement and sourcing activities.

When SMRT required procurement of items below $200,000, it would call for a request for quotation via closed invites. This entailed assistant buyers like Soh inviting vendors to submit their quotations to SMRT’s procurement system by a stipulated date.

CEE failed to win a contract with SMRT to supply it with parts for its passenger service doors in 2015. The company tried again in 2017 but again lost the contract to its competitor.

When Wong called Soh to ask why her company did not win the projects, Soh offered to help CEE get jobs with SMRT by providing her with confidential information of previous and current pricing lists in contracts CEE was bidding for, if Wong would “help” him.

DPP Ngia said they both understood this to mean that Wong should provide Soh with corrupt monetary gratifications.