Ex-RSAF engineer admits to cheating Govt over contracts worth $1.8m
A former Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) engineer has admitted in a district court that he cheated the Government over contracts worth more than $1.8 million.
Yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Vincent Ong said Rajkumar Padmanathan, now 49, joined RSAF as an air force engineer in 1989 and resigned on July 31, 2012.
His scope of work required him to raise requests for repair and maintenance works to aircraft. Contractors would tender for these jobs.
DPP Ong said: "After receiving quotations from the contractors, Rajkumar would indicate which contractors he recommended. (His) superiors would authenticate the request and generally relied on Rajkumar's recommendations in respect of the contractors, as well as the price quoted."
On May 19, 2010, he incorporated a firm, Goodwill Aviations System (GAS), with his wife as the sole director and shareholder.
Without telling his superiors about his link to GAS, he would make recommendations for jobs to be awarded to the firm. Between October 2010 and June 2012, GAS was awarded 99 jobs with a total value of $868,994.
Rajkumar met Sung Way Xiong, now 29, in 2014 after leaving RSAF. Sung was an RSAF engineer then. Rajkumar told Sung he was involved in the aviation business and asked Sung to provide prices of items in the RSAF inventory. Sung agreed to be part of the plan.
Yesterday, Rajkumar pleaded guilty to 19 cheating charges involving more than $150,000.
Besides that, he and Sung each pleaded guilty to one corruption charge and eight offences involving the Official Secrets Act.
Sung was given 10 weeks' jail yesterday. Rajkumar will be back in court on June 27.
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