4 men who cheated SMRT of over S$4 million sentenced to jail

SINGAPORE: Three former SMRT employees, together with an accomplice, received jail terms after a years-long trial came to an end.

The men had set up a company so they could submit bids and obtain contracts to provide goods and services to SMRT. Two of the men were employed with the Permanent Way Branch of SMRT Trains, and another was a line manager. They enlisted a man to act as a dummy director of the company.

Section manager Jamalludin Jumari, 68, and assistant engineer Zakaria Mohamed Shariff, 67, each received four years and nine months’ jail. Line manager Zulkifli Marwi, 60, and Akbar Ali Tambishahib, 68, the figurehead director of the company, were sentenced to 26 months each.

Akbar, a friend of Zakaria from childhood, was listed as the director of Enovation Industries and Enovation Technologies. He had no experience in the sector.

Jamalludin, meanwhile, was the superior of Zulkifli, who in turn was Zakaria’s superior. According to a report in CNA, Jamalludin and Zakaria were the ones in charge of the company.

Zulkifli, meanwhile, obtained the confidential information the men used to help their bids. He was also the first-level endorser for a number of Enovation’s bids.

According to District Judge Eddy Tham, Zakaria and Zulkifli had a lower level of culpability. The judge characterised the men’s offences as a “grave breach of trust,” given that they had used confidential information and experience to their advantage.

“Whilst it’s a private organisation, it deals with the provision of a very vital transport service and it’s of great importance that it’s well-run, especially in terms of its infrastructure and delivery of its rail services,” CNA quoted the judge as saying.

Between 2007 and 2012, SMRT awarded 26 requests for quotations and two tenders to the company that the men set up. This included a timber sleeper contract worth S$3.7 million. According to the prosecution, the men intended to make a profit of over 400 per cent.

For Enovation’s 28 transactions, the company was able to cheat SMRT of more than S$4 million, before SMRT found out about the conflict of interest.

In 2013, Jamalludin left Singapore for Malaysia. Some years later, he returned to face the charges against him.

Judge Tham said, “While the defence tried to show that the contract-awarding process was robust and would prevent any price-rigging on their part, as they would not know what were the bids tendered by the competitors, and the awards would only be given to the lowest compliant quote, the fact that Jamalludin and Zakaria were part of the chain of approval and assessment of the quotes or bids would clearly undermine the integrity of SMRT’s internal approval system.” /TISG

Read also: Ex-SAF captain charged for cheating others out of S$145K, said money was for mother’s medical bills, investments