NEA contractor's staff allegedly gave advance notice of mosquito breeding checks for bribes
Tung Chee Keong, a 48-year-old Singaporean who worked as a vector control worker with Killem Pest, faces six corruption charges.
SINGAPORE — An employee of a pest company contracted by the National Environmental Agency (NEA) to conduct mosquito breeding inspections was on Friday (Jan 18) charged with taking or attempting to take bribes from two construction companies.
Tung Chee Keong, a 48-year-old Singaporean who worked as a vector control worker with Killem Pest, allegedly received S$1,000 in bribes from Muthukaruppan Periyasamy — a 51-year-old manager of Fenzhii Engineering Services — between May and August last year in return for advance notice of four inspections.
Tung was also said to have solicited S$1,000 from Mr Kok Chew Leong, a workplace safety and health officer of China Jingye Engineering Corporation, in return for advance notice of the inspections at the construction site of a condominium called The Alps Residence in July last year. If Mr Kok paid the bribe, Tung also apparently agreed to turn a blind eye to mosquito breeding violations at the site.
TODAY understands that Mr Kok did not give the bribe.
In total, Tung faces six corruption charges.
Muthukaruppan, an Indian national, was hauled to court on Friday as well, along with Tung’s alleged accomplice Chandran Jeganathan, a 30-year-old Indian national who worked as a technician with Killem Pest. Chandran allegedly received S$600 from Muthukaruppan.
They both face five corruption charges each.
In a press release on Friday, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau said that giving or taking bribes is already a serious offence, and corrupt acts which compromise mosquito breeding controls “can pose a serious danger to public health safety”.
For each corruption charge, the men may be jailed up to five years or fined up to S$100,000.
The trio were granted bail at S$5,000 each. Muthukaruppan will return to court on Jan 29, while Tung and Chandran are scheduled to return to court on Feb 19.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated that Muthukaruppan Periyasamy was a manager at Ramo Industries when the alleged offences were committed. The information provided by the CPIB was incorrect. The bureau has clarified that he was a manager at Fenzhii Engineering Services.
