Ng Chuan Seng, the owner of a popular karaoke lounge in Singapore, found himself at the center of a criminal scandal that involved bribing a police officer, according to Channel NewsAsia.

He was sentenced on 4 September to 5 weeks imprisonment for the offence and fined $1,500 for failing to maintain the records of his KTV workers, another charge was also considered during his sentencing.

This incident unfolded when Ng allegedly assisted his associates in arranging a meeting with a police officer and providing an empty red packet, which was later filled with S$2,000 in cash.

The motive behind this was to “settle” a police investigation into a brawl between two rival gangs, in which Ng’s associates were entangled.

The Background Story

Ng Chuan Seng, a 52-year-old entrepreneur, had been running a KTV pub registered as B1 Entertainment, located at 149 Geylang Road. The establishment was marketed under the names “Kiss KTV” and “Pegasus.”

Ng’s involvement in this crime revolved around his acquaintance with a station inspector named Poo Tze Chiang, who served in the Secret Societies Branch of the Singapore Police Force.

Poo had previously supervised Ng during his time in prison, and their paths crossed again in 2018 when Poo became a regular patron at Ng’s pub.

The pivotal moment came in September 2019 when one of Ng’s associates confided in him about his participation in a gang altercation.

Fearing potential legal consequences, the associate turned to Ng for help in resolving the impending police investigation.

Aware of Poo’s role as a police officer, the associate hoped that he could influence the investigation’s outcome.

The Bribery Plot

Ng took it upon himself to assist his troubled associates and arranged a meeting between them and Poo at his KTV pub.

Before the meeting, the associates sought Ng’s advice on whether they should offer a red packet to Poo as a token of appreciation for his assistance.

Ng’s response was ambiguous, suggesting that the decision was ultimately up to them, but he proposed a figure ranging from S$1,000 to S$2,000 as a suitable amount.

Following this discussion, Ng handed an empty red packet to one of the associates, who later filled it with S$2,000 in cash. This concealed bribe was then presented to Poo, who accepted it.

Legal Consequences

The consequences of these actions were not limited to the immediate aftermath of the bribery incident. In a separate turn of events, police officers from the compliance management unit conducted an inspection of Ng’s pub on June 14, 2022.

During the inspection, it was discovered that the staff register failed to contain the personal details of seven employees, including a floor manager, a pub manager, a PR manager, a musician, and a waitress.

This failure to maintain proper records violated the conditions of Ng’s public entertainment license.

In light of these legal infractions, Ng faced charges related to both bribery and the violation of his entertainment license. Ultimately, he pleaded guilty to one count of abetting bribery and another count of failing to maintain employee records. A third charge was taken into consideration during the legal proceedings.

On September 4th, 2023, Ng Chuan Seng was sentenced to five weeks in jail for his involvement in the bribery case. Additionally, he received a fine of S$1,500 for the failure to maintain records of some KTV employees.

While the prosecution had sought a sentence of five to seven weeks in jail and a fine ranging from S$1,500 to S$2,000, Ng’s early guilty plea was considered a mitigating factor.

Poo on the other hand, was charged and his case was referred to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), and he was removed from his duties on the frontlines, his trial has been set for November later this year.

A couple in Singapore was previously reported as having dined-and-dashed after feasting $245 worth of food and fleeing without paying while the staff was not looking.

The couple had reportedly entered the restaurant when it was about to close, and the staff stayed back to work overtime to serve them.

After the couple fled without paying, the poor staff had to pay the customer’s unpaid bill out of her own pocket, with the amount being deducted from her $1,800 salary.

Following the incident, Ho Ching, the director of Temasek Trust and wife of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, shared her thoughts on it and said that the couple should be caned for preying on the weak and vulnerable.

Ho Ching’s Facebook post

There are cheats and there are cheats.

The ones who cheat retirees, low wage workers, and the vulnerable, are the lowliest of the low life.

We should try to find these folks, and cane them properly for preying on the weak and vulnerable.

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Afternote 1:

Some folks say employers are heartless to make the employees pay.

This is really shifting the blame from cheaters to employers.

Just think – what if employers are required to absorb such losses?

More cheats will turn up.

Dishonest employees may also collide with collaborators to cheat the employer.

Dishonest employees will also report fake incidents of cheating customers to disguise their own stealing of ingredients.

No – it is a perverse system to blame and charge the employers instead of going after the original cheats.

True, if this happens rarely, or if it is the first time it happened, perhaps the employers can give the employees the benefit of doubt, and split the difference.

But that it is prerogative of the employer, and should not be a requirement.

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Afternote 2:

True, there are people who forget to pay.

Perhaps they were too absorbed in other matters, or they were troubled by some other priorities.

But such forgetful people would typically be lone dinners, and less a guy trying to impress a date, and even less a family or a group of friends on an outing together.

Most of us would remember, and then come back to pay, either the same day, or within the week.

Rarely would someone be totally forgetful that they don’t come back at all to pay.

So again, in such a case, the sustainable solution is to go after the diner who forgot or chose not to pay.

In such cases, the police or judge could exercise discretion if restitution or repayment is made with apologies.

This is no different from the police waiving charges and letting us off with only a warning, if it were the first time we forgot to pay our parking charges, and we have had a clean record up to date.

There are folks who had a long track record of not paying parking or doing illegal parking for 3 or 4 dozen times.

If such a persistent offender pleads forgetfulness, it would be stupid of anyone to take their plea at face value, right?

Investigations into Recent Incidents At Kinderland @ Woodlands Mart and Kinderland @ Sunshine Place

1. The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) would like to provide an update on its investigations into recent incidents at two Kinderland centres.

Case Involving Kinderland @ Woodlands Mart

2. This case involving a 2-year old child was reported by a whistleblower to ECDA on 8 August 2023, who provided video evidence on 10 August. The behaviour depicted in the video clip revealed a breach of the Early Childhood Development Centres (ECDC) Regulations which prohibits, among other things, force feeding and hitting a child. The educator (“A”) involved has been issued a warning under the ECDC Regulations, and barred from working in the preschool sector. A is also currently under Police investigation, based on reports received by the Police, for offences under the Children & Young Persons Act.

3. ECDA’s investigations at the centre also established that another educator (“B”) had used inappropriate methods to restrict the movement of one 3-year old child under her charge on two occasions by (i) pulling the child’s shirt over the back of a chair and (ii) securing him to a chair using straps from an infant chair. ECDA has issued a warning to B, and required her to be placed under close supervision for three months, and to attend refresher training on child management strategies.

4. For the centre principal, our investigations showed that she did not exercise adequate supervision over her staff in their management of children and hence failed to prevent the use of inappropriate child management methods in the preschool. As such, ECDA has cancelled our approval for her to be deployed as a principal in a preschool. She has been issued a warning and will be required to attend refresher training on child management strategies. ECDA will consider her suitability as a principal after she has completed refresher training and after a period of 2 years.

5. Given the severity of the incidents at this preschool, ECDA has issued a warning, imposed a penalty of $5,000 on the operator, and reduced its licence tenure to 6 months with immediate effect. At the end of 6 months, ECDA will not renew the licence if the preschool fails to demonstrate significant improvements in its standard of care to their children.

Cases Involving Kinderland @ Sunshine Place in Choa Chu Kang

6. There are two reports with respect to Kinderland @ Sunshine Place in Choa Chu Kang.

7. On 29 August 2023, ECDA received a report of child mismanagement at Kinderland @ Sunshine Place. Sometime around April 2022, an educator (“C”) was seen forcefully pushing a 5-year old child. ECDA’s investigations are still ongoing. Police also received a report about this case, and have commenced investigations into the case. In the meantime, Kinderland @ Sunshine Place has on its own accord, placed C on leave of absence pending the outcome of the investigations.

8. The second report is an already concluded case. On 1 June 2023, ECDA received a report of child mismanagement from a parent of a 2-year old child who had attended Kinderland @ Sunshine Place but withdrew from the preschool in May 2023.

9. Our investigations revealed that the incident happened in April 2023. Two educators (“D” and “E”) at the centre admitted to strapping the child in his chair on several occasions. The straps were taken from an infant seat used in the centre’s infant care bay. The educators’ intent was to get the child to focus on the activity and prevent him from hurting himself and other children.

10. ECDA instructed the centre to immediately stop this practice and ensure all its educators adopt appropriate methods and work closely with parents to manage the behaviour of each child. We also issued stern reminders under the ECDC Regulations to the preschool and two educators for failing to use positive and developmentally appropriate methods to manage the child.

11. The centre was informed that more severe actions would be taken against them should a similar incident happen again in future. ECDA updated the parent on the results of our investigation and that action was taken against the centre, D and E.

Direction to Kinderland Headquarters for Independent Review

12. In view of the recent incidents of child mismanagement, ECDA has instructed Kinderland Headquarters to conduct an independent review of the child management practices in all their preschools, and to report to ECDA on the findings and recommendations within three months. During this period, ECDA will also place all preschools under Kinderland on close monitoring and conduct more frequent unannounced checks on their classroom management practices.

Review of ECDA’s Case Handling Process

13. The child’s safety and well-being are ECDA’s top priority in any investigation. If there is clear indication of child safety being compromised at the start of the investigation, ECDA will take immediate precautionary steps to remove the staff involved in the incident from contact with the children. At the same time, due process must be followed in investigating the involvement of the staff, and whether any regulations have been breached. Investigations will take time to complete because the fact-finding process has to be thorough, objective and robust.

14. In the case involving Kinderland @ Woodlands Mart, ECDA’s Investigation Officer commenced investigation by the next working day. Timely action was taken to gather the facts and interview various parties. The officer assessed that sufficient supervisory measures were put in place by the preschool to mitigate the risk to the safety of the children while investigations were ongoing. However, he failed to follow the established protocol that for cases with clear evidence that child safety is endangered, the staff should be immediately removed from classroom duties. ECDA acknowledges this lapse in its case handling procedures. We are reviewing our systems and procedures to strengthen this protocol and ensure better oversight of cases under investigation.

15. “ECDA places child safety as its top priority and follows up on all reported cases of child mismanagement. We do not condone acts of child mismanagement and our priority has always been to ensure children are not exposed to further harm while investigations are ongoing. When there is evidence that a child’s safety is endangered, this means immediately removing the incident educator from all roles involving direct care of children until we have concluded our investigations. In the case of Kinderland @ Woodlands Mart, ECDA has taken firm actions against the preschool and staff involved for the breach in regulations concerning child safety,” said Mr Tan Chee Wee, Chief Executive Officer of ECDA.

16. He added, “However, ECDA should have done better. We apologise for not getting Kinderland to immediately remove the educator from her classroom role while investigations are ongoing. We will strengthen our protocols and training of our officers.”

Recap