Tyre company manager fined $30k over corrupt dealing with Sats officer

SINGAPORE – An operations manager at a tyre and rims supplier was fined $30,000 over a corrupt dealing with an executive from in-flight caterer and ground handler Sats who wanted a loan for his sick child.

Dominic Quek Chun Hua agreed to the loan, as he knew the Sats officer, Leong Poh Keong, was inclined to recommend his company for an open tender exercise, and he did not wish to jeopardise any future contractual extensions by Sats.

According to a judgment dated June 19, Quek pleaded guilty to one charge of corruptly giving gratification in the form of three loans totalling $9,500 to Leong between April 2020 and January 2021.

Another charge of obstructing the course of justice was taken into consideration in his sentencing.

The case against Leong, who Sats said previously was no longer with the company, is ongoing.

According to the judgment, Quek’s company – Tom’s Tyre – entered into a two-year contract worth $1.44 million with Sats in January 2015 for the supply, delivery and fixing of new and existing tyres. Multiple extensions of the contract followed.

Sometime in late 2019, after the final extension, Sats informed Tom’s Tyre and other tyre suppliers that it was holding an open tender exercise for tyre-related services for a contract period of three years, with an option to extend by another two.

In April 2020, Leong, who was a training, quality and projects executive at the Sats maintenance centre and a member of the company’s tender evaluation committee, told Quek that his child who lived in Vietnam had health problems, and asked for a loan.

Quek, who knew that future contractual extensions by Sats would be evaluated by Leong, discussed the loan with his father, who helmed Tom’s Tyre, and they agreed to it.

Leong subsequently approached Quek for two more loans, which he gave as well.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Bryan Wong asked for Quek to be sentenced to between three and four weeks’ jail, while Quek’s lawyer, Mr Lee Teck Leng from Legal Clinic, submitted for a fine of up to $25,000.

In meting out the fine, District Judge John Ng said Quek did not initiate or offer the loans, and he did not ask or expect Leong to compromise his obligations to Sats.

He added that Quek had become acquainted with Leong around 2019 and that there was already an ongoing untainted contractual relationship between Sats and Tom’s Tyre before Leong asked for the loans in 2020 and 2021.

“That contractual relationship continued even after this episode of corruption by Leong surfaced,” said the judge.

The prosecution has appealed against the sentence, according to the judgment.