Three former ST Marine executives face corruption charges

Three former senior staff members of Singapore Technologies (ST) Marine, including its former president, have been charged with corruption and falsification of accounts.

Chang Cheow Teck - president of ST Marine between 2008 and 2010, and president of Singapore Technologies Aerospace from 2010 to 2014 - has been charged with three offences relating to alleged payouts of around $27,000 to win business.

Also facing one charge under the Prevention of Corruption Act is Mok Kim Whang, who was the senior vice president (Tuas Yard) of ST Marine between 2000 and 2004.

Ong Tek Liam is the third former employee facing 118 charges under the Penal Code. She was the group financial controller and senior vice president (finance) of ST Marine betwen 2007 and 2012.

The alleged misconduct is believed to have extended back to 2004, Reuters reported. It is believe Chang and Mok allegedly paid bribes to agents of companies to win contracts. The charges against Ong are around allegedly falsifying ST Marine's accounts.

In a statement released this week by parent company ST Engineering, it said the company has been cooperating fully with the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), after investigations began in 2011 around "certain transactions involving former and current employees". 

"The charges against the abovementioned former employees of ST Marine are not expected to have any material impact on the consolidated net tangible assets or consolidated earnings per share of the ST Engineering Group for the financial year ending 31 December 2014," the statement read.

"ST Engineering is committed to maintaining high standards of corporate governance and recognises that fraud is detrimental to the reputation of the ST Engineering Group. ST Engineering does not condone fraud, including corruption and bribery, and is fully committed to proactively mitigating the risk of its occurrence. ST Engineering will make timely further announcements, if necessary."

Image: ST Engineering YouTube