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<!--Article Info-->We will never tolerate corruption, says PM Lee
Government 'will not accept any slackening or lowering of standards' from public officers
SINGAPORE - Despite high-profile graft allegations involving public officers recently, corruption involving the Government forms "only a small proportion" of all cases here and is not a worsening trend, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday.
The Government will nevertheless throw the book at anyone involved in corruption and wrongdoing, even if this comes at the expense of its reputation, Mr Lee warned.
"Let me be quite clear - we will never tolerate corruption; we will not accept any slackening or lowering of standards," he said in a speech at the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau's (CPIB) 60th anniversary celebration. "Anyone who breaks the rules will be caught and punished. No cover-up will be allowed, no matter how senior the officer or how embarrassing it may be."
He added: "It's far better to suffer the embarrassment and to keep the system clean for the long-term than to pretend that nothing has gone wrong and to let the rot spread."
Speaking at length on the topic for the first time after the allegations came to light, Mr Lee said he was confident that the recent lapses "are not typical of the public service". "Overwhelming majority of officers are upright and trustworthy," he said.
The Government is reviewing and tightening its system in the wake of the graft scandals. But Mr Lee reiterated that to keep the system clean is more than just having safeguards such as checks and tough laws.
Imbuing public officers with the right values is as important, he added, because "no system can completely stop a determined cheat". Mr Lee also said that although he cannot comment on the ongoing investigations and trials, "it's bad that some officers have not lived up to the high standards which the Civil Service and the people of Singapore expect of public servants".
He called on public officers to understand the "ethos of public service" and to never let the public down - something the Head of Civil Service and Permanent Secretaries have clearly conveyed to all ministries and statutory boards.
Political leaders, too, must continue to set high standards of honesty and integrity, and society must continue to reject corruption, in order to keep Singapore graft-free, he added.
Mr Lee also noted that corruption here has remained "well under control". The number of complaints, registered cases, and prosecutions have fallen steadily over the years. The Republic is also ranked highly as a clean and incorrupt country by international organisations like Transparency International and the World Bank.
But he stressed that complacency must not creep in because "the price of corruption is not just the dollar amount of the bribes, but the cost to society of the bad decisions and the malfunctioning systems which far exceeds the money exchanged".
The CPIB anniversary celebration was also attended by the Republic's first two Prime Ministers, Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Goh Chok Tong.
In a press statement yesterday, Mr Lee Kuan Yew - who is one of the Republic's founding fathers - recounted how his team set out to be different in 1959 "in the East and South Asia region where corruption is endemic".
He said: "We strengthened the laws against corruption, gave CPIB officers more powers of interrogation and to seize documents. We introduced a fundamental change in the law on burden of proof that if a man possesses more assets than his known income, he is presumed to be corrupt and he must account for his assets beyond what he earns."
He added: "We have succeeded in keeping Singapore clean and corruption free. This requires strong political will, constant vigilance and relentless efforts by CPIB to follow up every complaint and every clue of wrong doing."
He described the latest cases which involved women seeking favourable outcomes by allegedly offering sex in return as "new forms of corruption". "There is no end to human ingenuity," he said.
<!--Article Info-->We will never tolerate corruption, says PM Lee
Government 'will not accept any slackening or lowering of standards' from public officers
SINGAPORE - Despite high-profile graft allegations involving public officers recently, corruption involving the Government forms "only a small proportion" of all cases here and is not a worsening trend, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday.
The Government will nevertheless throw the book at anyone involved in corruption and wrongdoing, even if this comes at the expense of its reputation, Mr Lee warned.
"Let me be quite clear - we will never tolerate corruption; we will not accept any slackening or lowering of standards," he said in a speech at the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau's (CPIB) 60th anniversary celebration. "Anyone who breaks the rules will be caught and punished. No cover-up will be allowed, no matter how senior the officer or how embarrassing it may be."
He added: "It's far better to suffer the embarrassment and to keep the system clean for the long-term than to pretend that nothing has gone wrong and to let the rot spread."
Speaking at length on the topic for the first time after the allegations came to light, Mr Lee said he was confident that the recent lapses "are not typical of the public service". "Overwhelming majority of officers are upright and trustworthy," he said.
The Government is reviewing and tightening its system in the wake of the graft scandals. But Mr Lee reiterated that to keep the system clean is more than just having safeguards such as checks and tough laws.
Imbuing public officers with the right values is as important, he added, because "no system can completely stop a determined cheat". Mr Lee also said that although he cannot comment on the ongoing investigations and trials, "it's bad that some officers have not lived up to the high standards which the Civil Service and the people of Singapore expect of public servants".
He called on public officers to understand the "ethos of public service" and to never let the public down - something the Head of Civil Service and Permanent Secretaries have clearly conveyed to all ministries and statutory boards.
Political leaders, too, must continue to set high standards of honesty and integrity, and society must continue to reject corruption, in order to keep Singapore graft-free, he added.
Mr Lee also noted that corruption here has remained "well under control". The number of complaints, registered cases, and prosecutions have fallen steadily over the years. The Republic is also ranked highly as a clean and incorrupt country by international organisations like Transparency International and the World Bank.
But he stressed that complacency must not creep in because "the price of corruption is not just the dollar amount of the bribes, but the cost to society of the bad decisions and the malfunctioning systems which far exceeds the money exchanged".
The CPIB anniversary celebration was also attended by the Republic's first two Prime Ministers, Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Goh Chok Tong.
In a press statement yesterday, Mr Lee Kuan Yew - who is one of the Republic's founding fathers - recounted how his team set out to be different in 1959 "in the East and South Asia region where corruption is endemic".
He said: "We strengthened the laws against corruption, gave CPIB officers more powers of interrogation and to seize documents. We introduced a fundamental change in the law on burden of proof that if a man possesses more assets than his known income, he is presumed to be corrupt and he must account for his assets beyond what he earns."
He added: "We have succeeded in keeping Singapore clean and corruption free. This requires strong political will, constant vigilance and relentless efforts by CPIB to follow up every complaint and every clue of wrong doing."
He described the latest cases which involved women seeking favourable outcomes by allegedly offering sex in return as "new forms of corruption". "There is no end to human ingenuity," he said.
For example, you have inside knowledge that your company is replacing their office chairs in the entire organization & have a budgte of x million dollars, & want high quality chairs that have 14 years warranty. You have a cousin who work for that company that sells that $800, 14 year Gtee chairs & you give information to cousin, who later won the contract; you get 'benefits' from cousin, is that corruption?
