SINGAPORE: One SMRT employee and two others who previously worked for the rail operator, as well as a company director, have been charged with cheating offences involving contracts worth a total of S$9.8 million, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said on Friday (Dec 29). The offences allegedly took place between 2007 and 2012.

Three of them were each charged with four counts of conspiring with each other “to cheat SMRT Trains by dishonestly concealing the fact that they had an interest in Enovation Industries (EI)”, resulting in SMRT being deceived into awarding contracts worth S$3.9 million to EI, said CPIB in a news release.



They were 60-year-old director of Enovation Industries Akbar Ali Tambishahib, 61-year-old former SMRT manager Jamalludin Jumari and 59-year-old former SMRT assistant engineer Zakaria Mohamed Shariff.

Akbar Ali, Jamalludin, Zakaria were also charged with 24 counts each of conspiring with each other to “cheat SMRT Trains by dishonestly concealing the fact that they had an interest in Enovation Technology (ET)”, resulting in SMRT being deceived into awarding contracts worth S$5.9 million to ET, CPIB added.

The amount in each purchase order were between S$3,700 and S$3.9 million.



A fourth person Zulkifli Marwi, 52, also faced the same charges. He is a line manager at SMRT.



CPIB said Jamalludin absconded in 2013, but was found recently in Malaysia and brought back to Singapore to face charges.

“The CPIB had worked closely with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission who acted expeditiously on our request for assistance,” authorities said.

For each charge of conspiring to cheat, the four accused may be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.



Responding to queries from Channel NewsAsia, SMRT's head of corporate marketing and communications Margaret Teo said that the company referred the case to CPIB in 2012 "immediately" after the company's own investigations.

"We note the charges filed by CPIB today and await the outcome of the proceedings," she said.