Senior project manager linked to 3 town councils allegedly agreed to accept $220k in bribes

AI generated

SINGAPORE – A senior project manager who worked at Holland-Bukit Panjang and Sengkang town councils allegedly agreed to accept $180,000 in bribes from senior executives of three companies.

Phua Gim Chuan, 63, was a senior project manager with property maintenance company EM Services – the managing agent of Sembawang Town Council – when he allegedly agreed to accept a further $40,000 in bribes from one of the senior executives.

EM Services’ website states that the company is jointly owned by the Housing & Development Board and Keppel Management.

Phua is accused of agreeing to accept the bribes from Ng Lee Peng, 62, Lim Kian Koon, 64, and Yap Hwee Kang, 66, to advance the business interests of the companies they represented in proposals for contracts with the town councils.

At the time of the alleged offences, Yap was a director at Paragon Engineering while Lim was a director at Seah & Lim Construction.

Ng was then a director at two different companies – MCE Contract Services and J&M Construction.

On Aug 21, Phua was charged with four counts of graft and two counts of dealing with the benefits of his purported criminal conduct.

Ng was handed two corruption charges while Yap and Lim were each handed a graft charge.

According to court documents, Phua was a senior project manager at Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council when he allegedly agreed to accept $30,000 in bribes from Yap in March 2020.

He was a senior project manager with EM Services between September and October 2022 when he purportedly agreed to accept $40,000 in bribes from Ng.

Phua is accused of agreeing to accept $100,000 in bribes from Lim when Phua was a senior project manager at Sengkang Town Council in December that year.

Between Dec 7 and 28, 2022, Phua allegedly instructed one Maureen Chua to deposit $90,000 of his purported ill-gotten gains into her bank account.

Court documents did not disclose how he was linked to her.

He was holding the same position at the town council when he allegedly agreed to accept $50,000 in bribes from Ng in January 2023.

Between Jan 17 and 20 that year, he allegedly used more than $105,000 of his purported ill-gotten gains to pay for a Mercedes-Benz car.

The cases involving all four Singaporean men have been adjourned to Sept 18.