Former Wildlife Reserves Singapore employee guilty of receiving bribe from engineering firm director

SINGAPORE: A former assistant director of Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) was found guilty of corruptly obtaining S$20,000 (US$15,600) from an engineering firm director on Friday (Aug 29).

Goh Meng Kwee, 53, and Ascension Engineering Services director Ng Yeow Seng, 62, were each convicted on a single corruption charge after a trial at the State Courts.

Goh still faces 12 other charges, comprising 10 more counts of corruption and two counts of using about S$44,000 from bribes to buy a Mercedes-Benz B200 in 2017.

The amount of money involved across all his criminal charges exceeds S$200,000.

WRS rebranded to become Mandai Wildlife Group in 2021. The company manages wildlife parks, including the Singapore Zoo and Bird Paradise.

Ascension Engineering Services did electrical works and was a contractor of WRS.

The prosecution's case was that Ng paid Goh S$20,000 in June 2014, when Goh was a project manager in WRS' exhibit design department and had influence over procurement.

Prosecutors argued that the money was paid for a corrupt purpose, to induce Goh to advance Ascension's business interests with WRS.

In statements given to investigation officers, Goh admitted that after being paid, he started recommending Ascension to WRS for jobs.

At trial, the defence claimed that Ng was paying Goh for his services in project management and as a licensed electrical worker on jobs unrelated to WRS.

However, prosecutors argued that these jobs did not yet exist in mid-2014 when Goh was paid, and that Goh's testimony became "utterly incoherent" when he tried to justify why he was paid.

Similarly, for Ng, prosecutors said he could not give "any rational explanation" for the payment, and the only reasonable inference was that it was to induce Goh to favour Ascension in the awarding of WRS jobs.

The deliberate lies that Goh and Ng told on the stand amounted to "corroboration of evidence of guilt", prosecutors further argued.

The prosecution noted that after the payment around June 2014, Ascension got four jobs from WRS in "quick succession" and two more in September 2015.

These jobs were also of significantly greater value than the small-value jobs Ascension received from WRS in 2013.

Delivering the verdict, District Judge Eugene Teo said the court goes "where the evidence leads us", and that the prosecution had proven the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

Both men will return to court for sentencing in November. They face up to five years in jail, a fine of up to S$100,000 or both punishments.

Goh's trial on his other charges continues.