Former ST Marine president, senior execs charged with corruption

SINGAPORE - Three former staff of Singapore Technologies Marine (ST Marine), who held high-ranking positions, were charged in court on Thursday under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) and the Penal Code.

Former president of ST Marine Chang Cheow Teck was charged with three offences of corruption involving a total sum of $273,778, reported The Straits Times. He held the position with ST Marine from March 2008 to April 2010. From May 2010 to June 2014, he was the President of Singapore Technologies Aerospace Ltd.

The 54-year-old has been accused of conspiring with two other colleagues Teh Yew Shyan and Ong Teck Liam between 2004 and 2010 to receive bribes in return for favours such as ship repair contracts, said the report.

Ong, 58, the former group financial controller and senior vice president (Finance) of ST Marine from April 2007 to Dec 2012, has been charged with a total of 118 charges under section 477A of the Penal Code. She allegedly made false petty cash claims, amounting to over $500,000, in entertainment expenses, when there were none.

Separately, Mok Kim Whang, 64, the former senior vice president (Tuas Yard) of ST Marine from June 2000 to July 2004, was accused of conspiring with others to corruptly pay $43,721 to a company in May 2004.

ST Engineering, the parent company, issued a statement today saying that it has been in full cooperation with the Corruption Practices Investigation Bureau since investigations started 2011.

The company's spokesman said: "ST Engineering is committed to maintaining high standards of corporate governance and recognises that fraud is detrimental to the reputation of the ST Engineering Group.

"ST Engineering does not condone fraud, including corruption and bribery, and is fully committed to proactively mitigating the risk of its occurrence."

The company added that the charges against the 3 former employees of ST Marine are not expected to have any material impact on the consolidated net tangible assets or consolidated earnings per share of the ST Engineering Group for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2014.

maryanns@sph.com.sg