Indian national jailed for six weeks for corruption in Singapore

An Indian national in Singapore has been jailed for six weeks for giving bribe to two officials of a pest control company and compromising the health security of employees at the construction site where he was working, according to a media report.

Muthukaruppan Periyasamy, 52, who worked as a construction manager for Fenzhii Engineering Services and Ramo Industries, was jailed for giving 1,600 Singapore Dollars (USD 1,173) as bribe to two officials of a pest control company and receiving information about the impending mosquito breeding inspections at his site.

Periyasamy faced five counts for bribing Chandran Jeganathan (30), an Indian, and Tung Chee Keong (48), a Singaporean national, to alert him about mosquito breeding inspections at his site, The New Paper said on Friday.

Keong and Jeganathan worked for pest control company Killem Pest, which was given a contract by the National Environment Agency to conduct vector control. The duo received bribes as reward for alerting Periyasamy about upcoming mosquito breeding inspections at his construction site.

The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said on Thursday that investigations showed Periyasamy had offered to pay the two officials 400 Singapore Dollars (USD 293) a month. He paid the duo the bribe on four occasions from May to August last year after Jeganathan told him about the impending inspections, the report said.

"Corrupt acts which compromise mosquito breeding controls can pose a serious danger to public health safety and should be dealt with resolutely," CPIB added. The duo was jailed on March 18 for accepting bribe under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Keong was sentenced to jail for 11 weeks and five days, while Jeganathan was imprisoned for six weeks and three days. Noting that Singapore has a strict zero-tolerance approach towards corruption, CPIB warned that it is a serious offence to give or accept bribes from another individual or entity.

Anyone convicted of a corruption offence can be jailed up to five years, fined up to 100,000 Singapore Dollars (USD 73,355) or both.

-PTI