SINGAPORE — While the prosecution pushed for a jail sentence of almost five years for former Ang Mo Kio Town Council (AMKTC) general manager Wong Chee Meng, his lawyer on Wednesday (June 26) argued for a fraction of it, on the basis that Wong was never in a position of power to decide on the awarding of contract tenders.

Wong’s lawyer, Ms Melanie Ho, told the court that such decisions were made by an estate maintenance committee, which her client was not a part of although he sometimes sat in meetings as the secretary of AMKTC.

Wong pleaded guilty on March 25 this year to receiving S$86,141 in kickbacks from the director of two building and repair companies.

The 56-year-old admitted to taking the bribes from 2014 to 2016 as inducements to advance the business interests of Chia Sin Lan’s two companies, 19-ANC Enterprise and 19-NS2 Enterprise.

Chia’s companies handle general building, repairs and redecoration works for AMKTC and other town councils.

The prosecution, led by Mr Jiang Ke-Yue, was pushing for a jail sentence of four years and eight months, along with a S$23,398.09 penalty.

Ms Ho, on her part, sought for a lower sentence of between 11 and 14 months’ imprisonment, along with a S$1,505.63 penalty instead.

“Our submission is that there was never any compromise to his duties to the town council,” she said.

‘WON ON THEIR OWN MERIT’

The “fact of the matter” was that 19-ANC and 19-NS2 were “good and reliable contractors with a stellar track record” which consistently met the standards required by AMKTC, said Ms Ho.

Furthermore, she argued that there was no co-relation between the gratification received by Wong and the contracts which were awarded to Chia’s companies.

She pointed out that during the period in which Wong had received kickbacks, the two companies lost more tenders than they won.

In 2015, for instance, the companies were awarded four out of 11 tenders and three out of six quotations they had bid for.

The following year, they did not win any of the seven tenders they had bid for, while only three out of eight quotations were successful.

“At all times, 19-ANC and 19-NS2 were awarded tenders and quotations by AMKTC based on their own merit,” said Ms Ho, adding that this was due to the fact that they were the lowest bidders.

‘NO PATTERN’ OF GRATIFICATION

The defence lawyer said the prosecution had tried to “paint a slanted picture” of her client as someone who wanted to “squeeze out every penny” for his enjoyment.

Contrary to that view, she said that Wong had spent close to S$17,000 out of his own pocket in meals, karaoke, spas and other entertainment.

“Why would he do that? That fact completely destroys a picture of what (the prosecutors) are trying to paint,” she said.

Taking his turn to argue for Chia, lawyer Michael Loh said the prosecution would like the court to believe there is “no iota of friendship” between Wong and Chia.

Mr Loh said that he had gone through the timelines of each instance Chia took Wong out, and tried to match all the times Chia made a bid for town council contracts.

Based on the success and failures of Chia’s companies, he said that there was “no pattern whatsoever” of gratification playing a part in the bidding process.

“If Mr Chia only wanted to court Mr Wong for corrupt intents and purposes, Mr Wong is really a dead duck in the water. But he continued being a friend of Mr Wong,” he said.

“Why take him out again, why spend so much money. For what?” he asked, as he went on to describe Wong as a general manager who cannot “push a number two (contract bid) to a number one”.

The prosecution is seeking a jail term of four years and two months for Chia, along with a maximum fine of S$100,000 for each of the two companies.

Both men will return to court for their sentencing on Aug 23.