M’sian man, 61, charged with taking S$150,000 cash bribes as Sembcorp Marine executive

A 61-year-old Malaysian man, who worked as a commercial executive at the Sembcorp Marine Integrated Yard Private Limited, is facing 14 charges after allegedly committing corruption.

According to a Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) press release, Balakrishnan Govindasamy was charged in court on Aug. 16, 2023 under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

From 2015 to 2021, Balakrishnan allegedly obtained, or attempted to obtain, gratification in cash totalling at least S$202,877 from the following nine contractors representing different companies:

Charge	Date:	Amount (S$):	Contractor:	Position:
1	March 2018 – March 31 2021	S$7,675	Ang Kok Hwee	Director of Honta
2		S$32,412
3		S$44,475
4		S$13,450
5		S$10,200
6		S$15,025
7	January 2020 – March 2021	S$15,000	Gunasekaran Balamurugan	Director of Ally Marine Services
8	July 2020	S$7,800	Tan Peck Siah	Director of IF Restoration
9	Sometime in 2020	S$1,000	Kittappa Sasikumar	Director of Hypex Engineering
10	January 2021	S$1,400	Khaw Poh Leong Jacob	Employee of Entraco Offshore
11	Two times in 2019 – 2020	S$4,090	Lim Chai Jin	Employee of Joo Hwa Engineering
12	Sometime in 2015 – 2016	S$8,000 (Attempted)	Koh Bee Giok	General Manager of Index-Cool Marine & Services
13	Sometime in 2021	S$40,350 (Attempted)	Subramaniam Naidu, Venkatachalam Govindaraj	Director of CMS Engineering, Operations Manager of CMS Engineering
14	Three times in 2015 – 2016	S$2,000	Ganesan s/o v Nagu	Director of Three Aces Marine

According to CPIB, these sums of money were meant as inducement or reward for advancing the business interests of the contractors with Balakrishnan’s employer.

Five of Balakrishnan’s charges are also punishable under Section 124 the Criminal Procedure Code, meaning that if convicted, he could face two times the amount of punishment liable for those offences.

Any person convicted of a corruption offence can be fined up to S$100,000 or sentenced to imprisonment of up to five years, or both.

Top photos from Pinterest and Mohammad Nazmus Shahadat/ Google Maps