CHANNEL NEWS ASIA, SINGAPORE – Two recent high-profile investigations involving government ministers – one on the rental of state property and another linked to Transport Minister S Iswaran – have put the CPIB in the spotlight. CNA looks at the agency’s origins and how it investigates cases.
SINGAPORE: The nation’s sole agency to investigate corruption in the public and private sectors has been in the spotlight in recent months, especially after it emerged that Transport Minister S Iswaran was arrested on Tuesday (Jul 11) as part of a graft-related probe.
Property tycoon Ong Beng Seng, the man who brought Formula 1 to Singapore, was also arrested on the same day by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) in the same probe.
Both men have been released on bail.
Separately, in May, the CPIB played a key part in looking into the rental of black-and-white bungalows at Ridout Road by two government ministers.
Earlier this year, the agency also issued stern warnings to six former senior management staff members of Keppel Offshore & Marine for their involvement in bribes allegedly paid to Brazilian state officials to secure large contracts there.
CPIB sits under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and is headed by a director who reports directly to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
It is an independent body that is “responsible for safeguarding the integrity of the public service and encouraging corruption-free transactions in the private sector”, according to PMO.
CNA looks at the history of CPIB, the powers it has, who its current director is and the notable cases it has dealt with over the past decades.
ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF CPIB
CPIB was set up in 1952 by the British colonial government when it grew “appalled” by failures on the part of the anti-corruption branch of the police’s Criminal Investigation Department, said CPIB’s website.
The anti-corruption branch was unable to curtail the prevalence of police corruption in colonial Singapore. Matters came to a head when three police detectives hijacked S$400,000 (US$303,000) worth of opium at Punggol Beach.
While some senior cops were also found to be involved, only two were dealt with due to the branch’s inability to garner sufficient evidence.
The government then put a team together to review these deficiencies, and CPIB was formed under the purview of the Attorney-General.
It comprised 13 officers, most of whom were briefly seconded to the bureau. This, coupled with limited time and capacity to conduct thorough investigations as well as a “social stigma” of investigating fellow police officers, meant that corruption continued to thrive, CPIB said on its website.
In 1959, things took a turn for the better when Singapore became self-governing.
The People’s Action Party government, led by founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, came into power and set about entrenching a zero-tolerance stance towards corruption.
CPIB was then put under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs and given its own office space at Stamford Road in 1961. It remained there until 1984 and was relocated a few times before moving to its current location at Lengkok Bahru.
CPIB was under PMO’s purview between 1963 and 1965. When Singapore gained independence in 1965, it went under the Attorney-General’s Chambers until 1969.
From then on, it was placed back under the purview of PMO.
CPIB DIRECTOR CAN GO TO PRESIDENT
CPIB reports to the Prime Minister and not to any other minister or government authority.
If the Prime Minister refuses to give consent for CPIB to make inquiries or carry out investigations into a case, including against the Prime Minister himself, the agency’s director can go to the President for permission to proceed with investigations, wrote Mr Lee Kuan Yew in his preface for the CPIB’s 60th-anniversary commemorative coffee table book.
“In other words, nobody is exempt,” he said.
This gives officers “functional independence so that no government body can question us or influence us in our enforcement and investigation efforts”, wrote Mr Koh Teck Hin, then-director of operations at CPIB, in a 2012 paper titled Investigation and Prosecution of Corruption Offences.
“We can deal with corruption in all areas, in any industry or business sector, in all branches of government, the judiciary, parliament, political parties, non-government organisations. There is no area where the law does not permit the CPIB to investigate,” Mr Koh added.
In Mr Iswaran’s case, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was briefed by the director of CPIB on Jul 5 regarding a case that the bureau had uncovered. The director sought Mr Lee’s concurrence to open a formal investigation.
Mr Lee gave his consent the following day and formal investigations began on Jul 11. Both Mr Iswaran and Mr Ong, the managing director of Hotel Properties Ltd, were arrested that day.
WHAT POWERS DO CPIB OFFICERS HAVE?
CPIB has the mandate to investigate any act or form of corruption in the public and private sectors, and in the course of doing so, any other offences under the law.
Under the Prevention of Corruption Act, CPIB officers have powers to arrest, search premises or seize evidence without a warrant if there is credible information or reasonable suspicion that a corruption offence has been committed.
The Act, which was enacted in 1960, also empowers the bureau to look into offences committed by Singapore citizens abroad. However, these investigations have to be conducted in Singapore.
In cases involving public officers, where investigations do not disclose any criminal offence but show that they may have breached civil service or departmental guidelines on conduct and discipline, these officers will be referred to their own departments for disciplinary actions.
During investigations, CPIB may also come across cases that reveal corruption-prone areas or loopholes in procedures in government departments.
“Based on its findings, CPIB will review the department concerned, point out weaknesses and recommend changes in their procedures,” said the agency’s website.
From 2017 to 2021, it issued an average of 138 warnings annually and prosecuted 139 people.
All corruption complaints that the bureau receives will be channelled to the Complaints Evaluation Committee, which was set up in 1989 to evaluate complaints and decide on follow-up actions.
The committee is chaired by the CPIB director and includes the head of its investigation units.
CPIB will decide on what action should be taken for any complaint received within 14 days.
If sufficient evidence for court prosecution is gathered during investigations, the offenders will be arrested and brought to court. If the corruption complaint relates to offences in progress, CPIB will “take immediate action to apprehend the offenders”, it stated on its website.
CPIB DIRECTOR HAS 30 YEARS IN PUBLIC SERVICE
Mr Denis Tang currently heads CPIB. He was appointed director in October 2018 and has served in several positions within the Home Team, with his last appointment being deputy commissioner of operations at the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority.
He joined the Singapore Police Force in 1982 upon receiving a local merit scholarship. He then studied economics at the National University of Singapore before returning to the police in November 1986.
He was conferred the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in 1997, the Long Service Medal in 2017 and the Civil Service Long Service Award (35 years) in 2020.
In 2019, Mr Tang gave a speech at the 8th Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, where he spoke about how CPIB uses “state-of-the-art technology and new methods of operation” in its work.
NOTABLE CPIB CASES
1975:
Minister of State for the Environment Wee Toon Boon was charged with corruption involving a sum of S$840,000.
He had used his ministerial status to make representation to civil servants on behalf of a property developer. In return, he was given rewards like a bungalow and free air tickets for his family.
He was convicted following a trial and sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment. He also had to pay a financial penalty of about S$7,000.
1979:
CPIB launched an investigation into Member of Parliament Phey Yew Kok, who was also chairman of the National Trades Union Congress and general secretary of three trade unions.
He had misappropriated more than S$350,000, mostly from two of the unions, and instigated an accountant to provide false information to a CPIB officer.
Phey was charged in court but fled the country. After more than three decades on the run in Thailand, where he worked odd jobs, he turned himself in at the Singapore Embassy in Bangkok on June 2015.
In January 2016, he was sentenced to five years’ jail after pleading guilty to a dozen criminal charges that included criminal breach of trust.
1986:
Mr Evan Yeo, then-director of CPIB, approached Mr Lee Kuan Yew on Nov 21, 1986, regarding a complaint of corruption against Minister for National Development Teh Cheang Wan.
Teh was accused of accepting bribes totalling S$1 million in 1981 and 1982, in return for helping two property developers to retain and acquire pieces of land for development.
In a subsequent parliamentary speech, Mr Lee said he initially asked for investigations to be discreet because the “news would spread like wildlife” if the public knew CPIB was probing “so prominent a minister as that for National Development”.
About a week later, Mr Yeo gave Mr Lee a summary of the evidence gathered and asked for permission for an open investigation.
Satisfied that there were sufficient grounds to do so, the Prime Minister approved open investigations. CPIB then interrogated Teh for the first time on Dec 2.
Mr Lee asked the Cabinet secretary to ask Teh to take a leave of absence until Dec 31. Investigations would have been completed by then, and the Attorney-General would have decided whether or not to prosecute him.
On Dec 14, Teh died by suicide in his home. In a letter addressed to Mr Lee, he wrote: “I have been feeling very sad and depressed for the last two weeks.
“I feel responsible for the occurrence of this unfortunate incident and I feel I should accept full responsibility. As an honourable oriental gentleman, I feel it is only right that I should pay the highest penalty for my mistake.”
1994:
CPIB opened investigations against Choy Hon Tim, former deputy chief executive of operations at national water agency PUB.
The following year, he was sentenced to 14 years’ jail for criminal conspiracy and accepting bribes totalling around S$13.85 million from a businessman who was once a PUB clerk.
The total amount of bribes that Choy took remains the largest to date in a single case in Singapore’s history.
2012:
CPIB levied sex-for-contracts corruption charges against ex-Central Narcotics Bureau chief Ng Boon Gay and former Singapore Civil Defence Force commissioner Peter Lim.
Mr Ng was accused of obtaining sexual gratification from a female employee of two IT vendors seeking government contracts. He was eventually acquitted of all charges.
As for Lim, he was convicted and sentenced to six months’ jail in 2013. He had obtained sexual gratification from three women in exchange for showing favour to their companies for IT-related tenders.
2015:
Wong Chee Meng, the former general manager of Ang Mo Kio Town Council, was hauled to court for accepting more than S$86,000 in bribes from a company director, Chia Sin Lan.
In return for the bribes, Chia’s two companies were awarded more town council projects. Chia also took Wong to KTV lounges, massage parlours and restaurants to curry favour with him.
Both were convicted in 2018. Upon appeal in 2020, Wong was sentenced to 39 months’ jail, while Chia was given 33 months’ jail.
