LKY: Singapore's anti-corruption visionary

ONE of Lee Kuan Yew's most significant achievements was to fight graft at all levels of society and try to weave incorruptibility into the fabric of Singapore culture. A month after his passing, we commemorate this achievement.

The former prime minister saw a "zero tolerance" approach to corruption as a strategic comparative advantage for Singapore in attracting the investments of multinationals to a region rife with ingrained practices of bribery, kickbacks and facilitation payments - long before the term "zero tolerance" gained modern popularity in compliance parlance. The political will behind Mr Lee's vision of a corruption-free Singapore, the importance placed upon the independence and effectiveness of the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), coupled with the aggressive enforcement of the Prevention of Corruption Act, made for a potent combination that saw Singapore ranked high in international anti-corruption surveys for many years.

The CPIB recently released statistics indicating that levels of corruption in Singapore were stable and under control despite various high-profile bribery cases involving both public servants and private enterprise that may have disproportionately skewed public perception of Singapore's pristine image. It appears that complaints about corruption in the private sector numerically outstrip concerns in the public service, and - given the CPIB's professed intent to develop an anti-bribery package for business - the private sector could form the focus of the CPIB's prevention and enforcement activities going forward. Efforts are reportedly underway to review the Prevention of Corruption Act, boost the manpower of the CPIB by one-fifth and establish a one-stop anti-corruption reporting centre in the coming year. Areas of potential legal reform include establishing a clearer and simpler threshold for proving corporate liability, recognising compliance programmes as a legal defence or mitigation measure, broadening the extraterritorial effect of the laws, and imposing personal liability on senior management for lapses in oversight.