Offered bribes as high as S$10,000, but they rejected it
Security executive at The Esplanade Mr Peter Tee rejected bribes offered by the management of the now defunct nightclub Queen not once, but thrice. They did not want him to lodge a report about a fight that took place outside the club. Photo: Faris Mokhtar/TODAY
SINGAPORE — During a raid on an unlicensed massage parlour last year, the business operator insisted on speaking privately with Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Chan Wai Hoong. Her next move stunned him.
The woman in her 40s tried to bribe him with S$10,000 to close the case. Knowing better, he rejected her offer.
“It was the first time in my 25-year career in the police force that I’ve encountered a bribery attempt,” he told TODAY.
For doing his part to fight corruption, the 44-year-old was among 18 individuals from the public and private sector commended by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) at an award ceremony on Friday(Dec 8).
On April 14 last year, ASP Chan and his team raided the massage parlour at Fortune Centre after receiving a tip-off that it also provided sexual services. They later found condoms stored in the unit’s letterbox.
In April this year, ASP Chan was again offered money and gifts while he was at work.
A woman from Moldova, who was caught providing sexual services in her room at a hotel near Raffles City, asked him and two of his colleagues whether “they can be friends” and offered them bribes, but her bid failed.
The women in both cases were later jailed four weeks’ each for attempting to bribe ASP Chan.
The long-serving police officer said that setting a good example to his colleagues is important, but it was much more imperative that they do not undermine the integrity of the public service. “We cannot betray the confidence and trust that members of the public have in us,” he added.
Among those who received the commendation award from CPIB were three driving instructors who turned away bribes from people who wanted to pass their driving tests, as well as Mr Peter Tee, 46, a security executive at Esplanade Mall.
On March 15, 2015, Mr Tee, who was just one month into his job, was offered a bribe by the operations director of the now-defunct nightclub Queen. There was a fight outside the club and the operations director did not want Mr Tee to file a report about it to the management.
Even after he rejected the bribe, the operations director persisted, signalling to his two floor managers to take out S$300 from the petty cash box to offer it to Mr Tee. One of the floor managers slipped S$150 into Mr Tee’s hand as he shook it, but the security executive pushed it away. The other floor manager then tried to pass S$50 to Mr Tee, saying it was “coffee money”, but he refused to take it.
Whenever incidents such as a fight takes place at the mall and theatre venue, Mr Tee has to lodge a report. Since Queen was then a tenant there, it could potentially lose its licence if it chalked up a high number of reports.
For the offence, the operations director was fined S$10,000, while the two managers were fined S$4,000 and S$8,000 for attempted bribery.
As his late grandfather was a former police detective and his father worked in the Singapore Armed Forces, Mr Tee said that they had inculcated in him the value of being honest. “I came from an upright family,” he said. “You need to have a conscience, to know whether what you’re doing is right or wrong. If you don’t have that, you will take the bribe.”
In the last five years, the number of cases investigated for corruption have fallen from 179 in 2012 to 118 cases last year. Speaking at the award ceremony, CPIB director Wong Hong Kuan said: “We should zealously guard what our forefathers had built over the last six decades and not let acts of greed ruin it.”
