A former employee of Brunei Shell Petroleum Company Sendirian Berhad (BSP) was sentenced to five years' imprisonment by the High Court yesterday for her involvement in a complex scheme of corruption that resulted in huge losses to the Government of Brunei Darussalam.

Aidah binti Tengah, 44 was jailed after found guilty of 15 charges under Section 6 (a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act along with five other similar offences.

Justice Dato Paduka Steven Chong also ordered for the defendant to pay $200,200, which was the total amount of bribes she received as part of the scheme, within three months, or face an additional six months' imprisonment.

The defendant also agreed to pay prosecution costs of $120,000 within three months, or serve an additional three months' imprisonment.

If the defendant failed to pay these additional penalties, she will have to serve a total imprisonment of five years and nine months.

In passing the sentence, Justice Dato Chong emphasised the aggravating factors in the case brought by the prosecution which included the gross abuse of trust and position by the defendant.

Justice Dato Chong highlighted that it is the duty of the court "to make it clear to those who are in positions of trust in a public body, like the defendant was, that they should expect severe sentences if they allow their personal greed to overshadow their responsibility and accountability".

He further said that "the corrupt acts concerned a breach of trust in the oil and gas industry which is of strategic importance to the economy of Brunei Darussalam. BSP is a public body and it is important to safeguard public funds and public confidence in its administration".

The facts of the case, which was read out to the defendant and agreed by her, detail an elaborate and complex scheme of corruption where the defendant sought to benefit from illegal gratifications offered to her by a BSP approved contractor, namely Musfada Enterprise which was controlled and managed by David Chong.

David Chong is currently serving an imprisonment sentence of six years and four months following his conviction in the High Court in November 2013 for a range of corruption offences. He had pleaded guilty to multiple counts of bribing Shell employees including the defendant.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau investigations revealed that the scheme devised by Chong and Musfada involved bribing BSP employees with various forms of gratifications to procure more orders for Musfada from BSP.

Investigations conducted by the bureau uncovered a network through which bribes were paid to both end users in various BSP departments as well as certain buyers in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) department including the defendant.

Investigations by the Anti-Corruption Bureau reveal that Chong and the defendant arranged clandestine meetings at the defendant's residence where Chong would hand over the cash bribes personally to the defendant.

The defendant admits to receiving such bribes every month from February 2008 to November 2009 which in total amounted to B$200,200.

The Public Prosecutor was represented by a team led by Dato Davinder Singh S C of Drew and Napier LLC of Singapore with Gary Low, Navin Shanmugaraj Thevar and Chen Chi with Deputy Public Prosecutors Aldila Salleh, Zuraidah Sidek and Sharon Yeo of the Attorney General's Chambers.

The defendant was represented by lawyer Rozaiman Abdul Rahman.

Source:
@BRUDIRECT.COM

by BruDirect.com

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