2 PA staff allegedly conspire with agent to provide false info during Our Tampines Hub project audit

2 other men were also charged in relation to procurement fraud cases involving OTH.

Julia Yee| January 31, 2024, 06:08 PM

Four men were charged in court on Jan. 31 for their alleged involvement in procurement fraud cases linked to the Our Tampines Hub (OTH) development project.

In one case, 67-year-old Seet Thong Kok was charged with forging quotations for building works requested by the People's Association (PA).

In another case, three men -- Vincent Chang Yew Teck, 63, Lee Kian Wee, 51, and Soh Chun Kang, 42 -- were charged with giving false information to a public servant during an audit of the OTH development project.

Chang and Lee were working for PA, a statutory board, at the time of their alleged offences. Their current employment status remains uncertain.

People involved

Seet was the facilities manager of a contractor that PA had engaged for minor building works.

The Straits Times consulted the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority to find that Seet is the owner of a terminated firm called Caspian Electrical Sub-Contractor.

Soh was a senior key account manager of a managing agent engaged by PA, according to a police statement on Jan. 31.

As for the PA employees, Chang was a deputy director of facilities management while Lee was a senior facilities manager of contracts.

Alleged forgery

Seet was charged with three counts of forgery.

The police said:

"He allegedly instigated the... contractor’s administrative staff to forge 18 quotations purportedly issued by [other firms], intending to deceive PA that the contractor’s quotation was the lowest-priced of three quotations for building works requested by PA."

He allegedly instructed someone to forge quotations from KJS Construction from Jan. 4 to Jun. 11, 2019, reported Shin Min Daily News.

He also allegedly told someone to prepare fake quotations for K&T Building Construction and SK Furniture Construction from Oct. 2 to Nov. 17, 2017.

Seet’s case has been adjourned to Feb. 28.

Allegedly gave false information to a public servant

Soh, Lee, and Chang were each charged with four counts of giving false information to a public servant.

The police said the trio had allegedly conspired to furnish backdated procurement documents to the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) between December 2020 and February 2021, during the AGO’s audit of the OTH development project.

The AGO received a total of 142 supposedly backdated procurement documents, according to the police.

The trio's cases will be heard again in court on Mar. 4.

Top image via Google Maps