SINGAPORE, Oct 6 (Reuters) – The Singapore government has referred eight civil servants to the police for further investigation after reviewing a study that claimed some officials had used privileged planning information for housing transactions, a minister told parliament on Tuesday.
Chan Chun Sing, Coordinating Minister for Public Services, said the police referral does not mean wrongdoing has been established but the government does not have the information needed to exclude the cases from further review.
• The government reviewed property transactions of 191 civil servants from 2007 to 2014 after a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in the US alleged that civil servants and their relatives bought S$270 million ($210 million) worth of property near planned train stations before they were announced, Chan told parliament.
• “Public officers must never use information through their official duties to advance their own private interests,” Chan said. “The integrity of the public service and the public’s trust in it are fundamental. We therefore take allegations of misuse of official information seriously, but we must also proceed on the basis of evidence and due process.”
• The government had earlier said it was reviewing the paper and that any wrongdoing would be referred to the corruption bureau.
• The research paper said there were 113 property purchases by civil servants near planned train stations in the two years before announcements, and another 108 made by relatives of civil servants in the three years before announcements. It said “the gains from informed trading are substantial”.
• The transactions were largely concentrated before 2011 and had a notable decline after, said the study, which is a working paper that has not been peer-reviewed.
• Graft is rare in Singapore, a major Asian financial hub that prides itself on a squeaky-clean government and pays junior cabinet ministers up to S$1.8 million a year. Singapore recently raised the salaries of political office holders, including the prime minister’s by 64% to $2.85 million.
• In a recent graft case, former transport minister S. Iswaran was jailed in 2024 for obstructing justice and receiving more than $300,000 worth of gifts.
($1 = 1.2815 Singapore dollars)
(Reporting by Xinghui Kok; Editing by John Mair)
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