Singapore corruption-related reports fall to lowest in 5 years, says CPIB

SHARPLY curtailed economic activities in Singapore due to the Covid-19 outbreak, coupled with the April and May "circuit breaker" to stem the spread of the virus last year, contributed to a five-year low in the number of corruption-related reports received by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) for 2020.

The anti-corruption bureau said on Thursday that the number of graft-related reports it received last year stood at 239, down from 350 in 2019, largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

CPIB director Denis Tang said: "Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, Singapore continues to maintain its low corruption level and good international standing as one of the least corrupt nations in the world. This requires our constant vigilance and resolute determination to keep corruption at bay."

Of the 239 corruption-related reports received, the bureau registered 81 reports as new cases for investigation, down 32 per cent from the 119 new cases registered in 2019.

That said, the percentage of corruption-related reports registered for investigation last year was 34 per cent - higher than the annual average of 30 per cent over the preceding four years. A report is registered for investigation if the information received is pursuable.

In 2020, some 86 per cent of all cases registered for investigations were from the private sector. Nine per cent of these cases involved public-sector employees who rejected bribes offered by private-sector individuals; these public-sector employees were from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA), the National Environment Agency (NEA), the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Public Utilities Board (PUB).

Public-sector cases accounted for 14 per cent of all cases registered for investigation last year. The number of such cases registered remained low at 11, and was comparable to the annual average of 13 of the preceding four years.

Despite disruptions to the workplace arrangements as a result of Covid-19, the CPIB achieved a high clearance rate, completing investigations into 87 per cent of subjects investigated in 2020. This is higher than the annual average of 82 per cent over the preceding four years.

In 2020, 129 individuals were prosecuted in Court for offences investigated by the bureau. Of these, 126 were from the private sector and three, from the public sector. The conviction rate stood at 97 per cent, excluding withdrawals.

To ensure that the fight against corruption proceeded uninterrupted by Covid-19, a skeletal team of 10 officers plus the CPIB director continued to work from the office; most of the officers worked remotely from home during the circuit breaker.

This ensured time-sensitive cases were attended to, such as the investigation against an NParks manager, Lee Choon Phing, for alleged corruption, cheating and taking upskirt photographs of women.

The bureau said: "CPIB had to act expeditiously to investigate this case during the circuit-breaker period to avoid the risk of critical evidence being destroyed." It noted that the investigations had led to the discovery of Lee's other alleged non-corruption offences.

Thanks to a digitalisation journey way before Covid-19, CPIB was able to leverage science and technology to strengthen its intelligence capabilities and investigative support tools. In the case of Christopher Tan, the associate director of Singapore Management University (SMU) charged with three others on March 23 for alleged corruption involving a total of S$472,000, CPIB was able to retrieve deleted evidence on Tan's devices.

Last year, Henry Foo, a former deputy group director of the Land Transport Authority (LTA), was charged with corruption involving S$1.24 million in loans, reflecting Singapore's zero tolerance for corruption.

Internationally, Singapore's anti-corruption efforts continue to be well-regarded, with Transparency International (TI) ranking Singapore third out of 180 countries in the 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). Singapore maintained a high score of 85 out of 100.

Domestically, public perception of the effectiveness of the corruption control efforts in Singapore improved to 94 per cent in 2020, from 92 per cent in 2018. In addition, 80 per cent of the respondents trust CPIB as an effective anti-corruption agency, up from up from 74 per cent in 2018.