Indian-origin engineer charged with corruption in Singapore

An Indian-origin former Singapore Air Force engineer was today charged with over 250 corruption-related offences, Singapore's anti-graft agency has said.

Rajkumar Padmanthan faces 251 charges, including cheating the government by concealing his ownership of Goodwill Aviations System, a firm he had recommended to Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) for aircraft system repair and maintenance works, said the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB).

As a result RSAF contracted and paid the firm Singapore dollars 869,000, said CPIB, which investigates and prosecutes corruption in the public and private sectors in Singapore.

He also recommended Eagle Flight Aviation Services, a firm he had an interest in, as a contractor. The firm was contracted by RSAF and paid Singapore dollars 633,000, it said.
 

Rajkumar was also found to have concealed the fact that another firm he had recommended to RSAF, Duratech Engineering, would subcontract the work to Goodwill or Eagle Flight, Channel News Asia reported.

Duratech was paid Singapore dollars 259,000 for repair and maintenance works, the report said.

Meanwhile, another local engineer Sung Way Xiong was charged with agreeing to accept an unknown sum of money and future employment from Rajkumar by providing him with restricted pricing information.

Jeevan Arumugam, an Indian-origin owner of Eagle Flight, was charged with 67 counts of conspiring with Rajkumar by deliberately concealing the latter's interest in the business.

CPIB said in a statement that it took a serious view of any corrupt practices and would not hesitate to take action against any party involved in such acts.

"Employees should not have official dealings with companies that they have a personal or vested interest in or use corrupt means to obtain confidential information for competitive advantage," it said.

RSAF is the air arm of the Singapore Armed Forces. It was first established in 1968 as the Singapore Air Defence Command.