Engineer, manager imprisoned for bribery

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

A secret bribery deal between a subcontractor and an engineer went awry after a dispute over an unpaid loan. Both must see out their punishments.

The Asian engineer, 44, worked for a facilities management services provider. He was tasked with overseeing maintenance work done by subcontractors.

He was responsible for preparing reports related to the fulfilment of required work upon which the services provider issued payments to subcontractors.

He received Dhs8,000 from the owner of a maintenance company – an Asian manager, 59 – in November to endorse unfinished work and enable him swindle payments from the services provider.

He asked the manager for Dhs29,400 to prepare for him a report showing his work was “excellent.” He later defaulted on Dhs2,000 he borrowed from the manager. The latter disclosed their secret.

The manager divulged to have bribed the engineer to overlook his company’s violations and substandard work. In court however, both defendants rebuffed anything to do with the bribery deals.

The Criminal Court imprisoned them for six months plus deportation. It fined the engineer Dhs37,400. The Appeals Court has upheld the ruling and slapped the manager with a Dhs8,000 fine.

In prosecution records, the engineer asked the manager to lend him some money to treat his ailing mother. The manager lent him Dhs2,000.  The engineer defaulted on the sum and vowed never to repay.

The manager threatened to divulge the bribery to his workplace. The engineer threatened to block Dhs100,000 the services provider owed his company. The manager went to the engineer’s workplace.

An Emirati sales director, 36, was on duty in February when the infuriated manager arrived and told her the engineer asked him for bribes to prepare completion reports for works conducted by his company.

“I asked him for proof. He presented me a WhatsApp audio conversation in which the engineer promised to note in the report that his company’s work was excellent, provided he paid him. He told me he earlier handed the engineer Dhs8,000. And that the engineer still wanted 30 per cent (Dhs29, 400) of a maintenance contract worth Dhs97,000,” explained the director.