2 S’pore Power technicians jailed for graft

SINGAPORE — Two former Singapore Power (SP) technicians were jailed on Friday (Feb 26) for corruptly obtaining gratifications amounting to S$450 from a subcontractor that handles electrical installations in new Housing and Development Board (HDB) and private residential flats.

A district court heard that on Aug 8, 2014, Muhamad Ridhuan Ramli, 33 — whose duties include inspecting electrical meter layouts and installing such meters at HDB flats — had deliberately applied a wrong measuring method while inspecting a flat in Block 667A Punggol Drive.

He then told a mechanical and electrical coordinator in charge of construction works at the block that the electrical boards were not installed high enough, when they were in fact satisfactorily installed according to SP PowerGrid’s guidelines.

Ridhuan then asked the coordinator for S$450, to be divided among him and two other colleagues, for the trio to install the meters.

He rejected the coordinator’s initial offer of S$20 and demanded more. The coordinator obliged, and took S$450 from a foreman employed by Hong Dat Engineering, a subcontractor tasked to install the electrical boards at this block of flats, and handed it to Ridhuan.

For corruptly obtaining the money as an inducement to “not create difficulties” for Hong Dat in his inspection of Hong Dat’s electrical board installations at the flat, Ridhuan was sentenced to two weeks’ jail.

After they installed the meters, Ridhuan then handed S$200 from the money he corruptly received to his colleague Mohamad Suffiandi Mohamad Suhaimi, 30, and S$50 to a third accomplice Mohd Hutty Hassan, 62.

Mohamad Suffiandi was sentenced to one week’s jail for corruptly receiving the reward. Both Ridhuan and Suffiandi were each ordered to pay a S$200 penalty.

These jail terms are lower than the six-week sentencing benchmark for similar offences because this case does not infringe upon “safety issues” present in previous cases, said the district judge.

Nevertheless, these offences warrant custodial sentences, said the judge, as they involved an essential public service.