Two former project officials employed by Daewoo Engineering & Construction have pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe a senior official in Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) in return for favourable treatment in a metro contract Daewoo had won in 2014.
Korean nationals Kim Young-Gyu, 52, and Ro Sungyoung, 49, respectively, were Daewoo’s project director and project manager on Daewoo’s S$441m contract to build Stevens MRT Station on the Thomson-East Coast Line (pictured).
On Friday, 7 May, they each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to bribe Henry Foo Yung Thye when he was the LTA’s deputy group director, with a loan of $30,000 between 2018 and 2019.
Another charge involving a loan of $20,000 to Foo Yung Thye will be taken into consideration by the court during sentencing later this month, reports The Straits Times newspaper.
Foo himself, described as having a gambling habit and debts, is accused of receiving some $1.24m in loans as bribes from LTA’s contractors and sub-contractors. He faces 23 charges for corruption and 13 for cheating.
He was charged in July 2020.
Others have been snared in the investigation.
Also on Friday, Singaporean national Chen Xuguang pleaded guilty to playing a role in the scheme by falsifying invoices from his company, Tong Sheng Construction & Trading, as a subcontractor of China Railway Tunnel Group.
China Railway Tunnel Group’s Singapore branch is also is accused of giving Foo S$220,000 in bribes.
Foo’s case is still working its way through the courts. He is also accused of cheating LTA colleagues into giving him some S$726,500 in loans.
The Koreans and Chen Xuguang will be sentenced on 18 May.
Image: Daewoo had won a S$441m contract to build Stevens MRT Station on the Thomson-East Coast Line (Zkang123/CC BY-SA 4.0)
