SINGAPORE: The director of a cleaning firm was fined S$14,000 (US$10,360) on Wednesday (Aug 23) for offering a monthly bribe to the chairman of the MacPherson Hawkers Association in exchange for a contract at a hawker centre.
Tee Kek Ling, 77, pleaded guilty to one count under the Prevention of Corruption Act of corruptly offering gratification.
Tee was the sole proprietor of cleaning service firm Chang Cheng Fatt Enterprise.
The hawker centre at the centre of this case was Circuit Road Hawker Centre, which was overseen by MacPherson Hawkers Association, a registered society set up to serve as a bridge between stall owners and authorities.
The association mediates disputes between stalls, conveys policies and negotiates deals on behalf of all hawker stall owners. There are 106 stalls at Circuit Road Hawker Centre.
In early 2022, the hawker centre’s contract with its cleaning contractor, Jie Jin Cleaning Services, was coming to an end.
To give the hawkers an opportunity to choose their cleaning contractor, the chairman of MacPherson Hawkers Association, Mr Quek Sy Kng, decided to call for a tender exercise.
Hawker stall owners would be allowed to vote for their preferred cleaning contractor, after reviewing the submitted quotations.
Because the association was relatively unfamiliar with holding tender exercises, it sought help from the National Environment Agency (NEA) and asked for recommendations of “reliable cleaning contractors”.
An NEA representative recommended two contractors – Tee’s firm and Clean Solutions.
Mr Quek invited the two firms, along with a third firm JJ Cleaning, to take part in the tender exercise. He told them that they could submit only one quotation each and that the association would not accept any edits or resubmissions.
Around Feb 26, 2022, Tee arranged to meet with Mr Quek to submit his firm’s quotation. They met at a coffee shop near Circuit Road Hawker Centre.
After handing the quotation to Mr Quek, Tee said he would give Mr Quek S$200 per month if the cleaning contract was awarded to him.
Mr Quek immediately rejected him. Tee then told Mr Quek that NEA “could not do anything” if Mr Quek awarded the contract to Tee’s cleaning firm without the tender.
Mr Quek read Tee’s initial quotation before walking off.
In March 2022, Tee found out that his company’s quotation was priced higher than that of JJ Cleaning’s. Because he could not amend the quotation, he contacted some Circuit Road Hawker Centre stall owners directly.
He told them that he would collect fees that were lower than what was stated in his firm’s initial quotation. Tee knew that his revised fees would undercut the quotation submitted by JJ Cleaning.
The majority of the stall owners at the hawker centre voted for Tee’s firm, and the contract was eventually awarded to Tee’s firm, based on the votes submitted.
The prosecutor sought a fine of between S$10,000 and S$20,000, saying that S$200 monthly for a three-year contract would be an estimated S$7,200 in bribes.
While Mr Quek did not accept the bribe, the offer had the potential to deprive the stall owners of the opportunity to review quotations and vote for their preferred cleaning contractor.
Other cleaning firms would also be deprived of having their submissions considered, he said.
For offering a bribe, he could have been jailed for up to five years, fined up to S$100,000, or both.