By Julia Ng | Posted: 08 December 2011 1031 hrs
SINGAPORE: The
ex-president of the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) and former
MP Choo Wee Khiang has been charged in court with corruption.
The
Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said from 2005 to 2007,
it received several anonymous complaints against Choo, alleging that he
had charged his personal airfares, expenses, phone bills to the
Association and received gifts from Chinese coaches and players.
Choo was the STTA at the time of the alleged offences.
Acting
on the information received, the Bureau conducted an investigation
which revealed that in 2005, Choo had received S$1,500 from Liu Zhongze,
who was then a national team player, and Luo Jie, who was then an
assistant coach of the STTA, in return for giving Liu more opportunities
to represent the Association in table tennis tournaments.
Investigation
also revealed that between 2003 and 2004, Choo had received a total of
US$600 on two separate occasions from Shi Mei Sheng, who was then a STTA
coach, as a reward to Choo for approving the use of two different
training facilities in China.
Besides Choo, the former High Performance Manager of STTA Koh Li Ping was also charged on Thursday morning.
The
Bureau said between 2002 and 2003, Luo Jie, whose work pass only
permitted him to work for STTA, provided table tennis training to
students for a local secondary school.
But the school was unable to pay him for the training provided, which amounted to S$8,400.
Luo Jie told Choo and Koh about this.
They
then allegedly arranged with the principal of the school to engage STTA
in a new training arrangement with the intention to use the proceeds
received to pay Luo Jie for the outstanding fees.
Subsequently,
after STTA received the payment from the school, Koh obtained approval
from Choo to authorise a payment of S$8,400 to Luo Jie, even though the
latter did not provide any training services under the new training
arrangement.
Choo Wee Khiang was charged with three counts of
corruptly accepting gratification under Section 6(a) of the Prevention
of Corruption Act, Chapter 241) and one count of criminal breach of
trust as a servant, which is an offence under Section 408 of the Penal
Code, Chapter 224.
Koh Li Ping was charged with one count of
engaging with Choo Wee Khiang in a conspiracy to commit criminal breach
of trust as a servant, an offence under Section 408 read with Section
109 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.
- CNA
The famous mp who said Serangoon is dark.
the amount is...................... a joke.....................