SINGAPORE – A project manager at a construction firm worked with three other men, including the company’s sole director, to give more than $88,000 in bribes to the facilities management director at the Singapore Zoological Gardens.

The attraction, now known as the Singapore Zoo, was a subsidiary of Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), which also managed the Night Safari.

Chong Yun Chia, 40, who was working for KK Iron Engineering (KKI) at the time, was one of four men who engaged in a conspiracy to give the monies to Barry Chong Peng Wee, 57, over four occasions in 2016.

This was done to advance KKI’s business interests with WRS, now known as the Mandai Wildlife Group.

On May 2, Chong Yun Chia, a Malaysian, pleaded guilty to five graft charges with 19 others to be considered during sentencing.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Kelvin Chong, Shamini Joseph and Darren Sim stated in court documents that due to the corrupt arrangement, WRS awarded multiple contracts to KKI worth more than $1 million.

It is estimated that WRS suffered a loss of at least $88,350 as a result of marked-up prices submitted under the corrupt arrangement in relation to Chong Yun Chia’s charges.

The DPPs told the court that he had worked with Koh Kian Hee, To Chai Kiat and Toh Yong Soon to give the bribes to Barry Chong, who has left WRS.

At the time of the offences, Koh, 41, was a director and shareholder at construction firm Geoscapes, while To, 50, was the sole director of KKI.

Toh, 39, was then a project manager at a firm called Shin Yong Construction (SYC). The cases involving To, Toh and Barry Chong are pending.

According to court documents, Chong Yun Chia also received bribes totalling more than $92,000 from Koh over multiple occasions in 2016 as rewards for creating fictitious invoices.

The prosecution said that in 2005, Barry Chong entered into a corrupt arrangement with key personnel of SYC to ensure that WRS-related jobs were awarded to SYC in exchange for monetary commission.

Toh began managing SYC’s operations 10 years later and continued with this arrangement.

The DPPs said: “Toh was to recruit other contractors into the arrangement.”

They added: “Barry would tell Toh a specific price to bid at to ensure that a job was awarded by WRS to SYC or the other contractors.

“Toh and the group of contractors would then collude to put in bids for WRS jobs at the specified prices, where some parties would put in bids higher than the bid price given by Barry.”

The quotations WRS received were presented to Barry Chong, and the managers working under him would generally award the jobs to the lowest quotes received.

The prosecution told the court that Toh later recruited Koh into the scheme and, in turn, Koh roped in To.

Court documents stated that Koh had told To that KKI would be able to secure WRS-related projects if he joined their scheme.

To then recruited Chong Yun Chia when the latter began working as a project manager for KKI.

In 2014, Chong Yun Chia and To jointly founded a company called Onesta Projects.

The prosecution told the court that around January 2016, Koh asked To to generate fictitious invoices for him to help mask an audit trail of “commissions” that Geoscapes had been paying Barry Chong in exchange for WRS-related jobs.

Even though To refused to do so, Chong Yun Chia agreed to help Koh and liaised directly with him. He then received more than $92,000 in bribes from Koh, the court heard.

These offences came to an end when the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau looked into the matter in October that year.

Chong Yun Chia’s mitigation and sentencing are expected to take place on July 11.