Crane company director jailed for giving S$492,000 in 'commissions' to get jobs with Keppel FELS

SINGAPORE: When approached by a man who offered to introduce his company to Keppel FELS for jobs in exchange for "commissions" or "referral fees", the director of a crane company agreed.

Through the conspiracy, the director obtained 22 crane inspection jobs from shipbuilding company Keppel FELS with a total contractual value of at least S$987,000.

In exchange, he paid about S$492,275 to the man's companies as bribes for introducing his firm to Keppel FELS, which was a subsidiary of Keppel Corporation's offshore and marine arm at the time.

Fatkullah Tiap, 61, was jailed for 16 months for his crimes on Thursday (Mar 2). He pleaded guilty to six counts of giving gratification under the Prevention of Corruption Act, with another 12 charges taken into consideration.

The court heard that Fatkullah was the managing director of Growa (FE), a company in the business of distributing hoists and cranes and providing services including the servicing of such equipment.

In 2014, he was approached by two men, co-accused Goh Ngak Eng, a director of air winch company Megamarine, and Rajavikraman Jayapandian, a project director of generator and compressor company Rotating Offshore Solutions. 

Raj was also a former Keppel FELS employee and knew co-accused Alvin Lim Wee Lun, who was working as a yard manager there and was in a position to decide which vendors got jobs from Keppel FELS.

Raj had first started referring jobs from Keppel FELS to Goh through Lim, in exchange for a percentage of the invoice value of awarded contracts.

Fatkullah was asked if he was interested to have his company Growa recommended to Keppel FELS as a prospective vendor for crane inspection services.

Fatkullah was keen, as he thought Growa might not even have a chance to be interviewed for the job if Growa approached Keppel FELS directly.

THE CONSPIRACY

During a meeting at Megamarine's office, Raj told Fatkullah that he had to pay "commissions" for contracts Keppel FELS awarded to Growa, in exchange for the introduction.

Raj and Goh explained that the "commissions" had to be camouflaged, with Goh getting his company to send Growa fictitious invoices corresponding with the marked-up amount. There would be no real services provided, and the invoices would be issued solely for Goh to receive the "commissions" from Growa.

Fatkullah knew that these were in fact bribes, and that paying them to Goh was wrong, but he agreed.

Later in 2014, Fatkullah and his sales manager had an interview with Keppel FELS, where Fatkullah met Lim. They discussed Growa's company profile and arranged for Keppel FELS to provide specifications of their cranes so Growa could provide a quotation.

A quotation was prepared, but Goh told Fatkullah that he wanted to review the quotation first. He forwarded the quotation to Raj, who reviewed it with Lim.

After this, Raj told Goh to tell Fatkullah to mark up Growa's invoices to Keppel FELS by 50 per cent, but Fatkullah said he could only arrange for a mark-up of between 40 per cent and 50 per cent depending on the cost of the job.

The quotation was adjusted accordingly and submitted to Keppel FELS. After this, Growa was registered as one of Keppel FELS' vendors and began receiving jobs.

THE JOBS AWARDED

Between January 2015 and October 2016, Growa performed 22 crane inspection jobs for Keppel FELS with a total contractual value of at least S$987,000.

From these jobs, Fatkullah arranged for Growa to make 18 payments totalling S$492,274.90 to Goh's companies, representing between 40 per cent to 50 per cent of the amount reflected in Growa's invoices to Keppel FELS.

Goh had been sentenced to 17 months and three weeks' jail by a district court for his crimes, but after Goh appealed, it was increased to 37 months and three weeks.

The prosecution asked for between 16 and 19 months' jail for Fatkullah, noting the total bribe amount of about S$492,000 he gave to Goh.

There was a high degree of planning and premeditation in how the bribes were calculated and received, said the prosecutors.

Because of the conspiracy, Keppel FELS paid an additional S$492,000 more than it ought to have, to fund the illicit gains of the conspirators.

The prosecution cited the High Court's observations that Keppel FELS was in the bunkering and maritime industry, a strategic industry that concerned jobs connected with the Keppel FELS shipyard.

"The economic ramifications would be considerable should corruption take root in the maritime industry, which was observed in 2015 to account for up to 7 per cent of Singapore's gross domestic product and 170,000 jobs," said the prosecution.

The cases for Raj and Lim are pending.