Homepage
PR Newswire
Seems like public sector, having better work-life-balance, satisfactory pay and gd working hours, are attracting some kinds of vices/frauds and greed?
Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean called the latest graft case involving a senior civil servant "particularly serious".
Assistant director at the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau, Edwin Yeo Seow Hiong, 39, was charged in court on Wednesday with misappropriating S$1.7 million from the anti-graft agency.
In total he faces 21 charges -- eight of misappropriating funds and criminal breach of trust, one of forgery and the rest of using part of his ill-gotten gains to gamble at the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) casino.
As head of field research and technical support at CPIB, Yeo is said to have stolen the $1.7 million between 2008 and August last year. He is known to and believed to have spent slightly more than $240,000 at the casino between 4 May and 8 September last year, around which time the bureau first caught wind of his alleged activity.
Among the charges are instances of Yeo swiping more than $700,000 in cash and $470,000 from a CPIB bank account. He was also said to have gambled at MBS at least 12 times, with transactions recorded from his POSB bank account ranging from $8,250 to $45,550 used for that purpose.
More involved?
DPM Teo, who is also the Minister in charge of the Civil Service, said in a statement, “This case is particularly serious because itinvolved a senior officer in theCPIB, which is entrusted with the mission of maintaining the integrity of the system."
“We will take strong measures to tighten up processes. PMO is examining whether any supervisory lapses may have contributed to this incident. If so, it will take action against the officers responsible," he added.
DPM Teo also acknowledged public concern over the number of high profile criminal cases involving civil servants.
Police staff sergeant Iskandar Bin Rahmat has been charged with the double murders at Kovan while former Central Narcotics Bureau chief Ng Boon Gay was recently acquitted of corruption. Ex-SCDF chief Peter Lim was also jailed six months for corruptly obtaining sexual favour earlier this year.
In 2011, Koh Seah Wee, formerly a deputy director of information technology at the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) was sentenced last month to 22 years' in jail for cheating the government of more than S$12 million.
"As there have been a number of high profile cases recently, the public is understandably concerned about whether this reflects systemic issues in the Public Service.The Service itself is concerned about this," said DPM Teo.
He revealed that the Prime Minister's office had asked both the Commercial Affairs Department and CPIB to conduct a study of public offficers investigated for corruption and other financial crimes over the last five years to see whether there was any change in their number or profile.
The study results will be shared by the Head of the Public Service next week.
PM Lee also initiated an an independent audit into possible lapses within CPIB's processes when this new case came to light and measures are now being implemented.
Associate MD for financial investigations at Kroll Advisory solutions, Stefano Demichellis told Yahoo! Singapore, that from a corporate governance standpoint, the recent case highlighted "red flags" within CPIB that had to be addressed.
Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean called the latest graft case involving a senior civil servant "particularly serious".
Assistant director at the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau, Edwin Yeo Seow Hiong, 39, was charged in court on Wednesday with misappropriating S$1.7 million from the anti-graft agency.
In total he faces 21 charges -- eight of misappropriating funds and criminal breach of trust, one of forgery and the rest of using part of his ill-gotten gains to gamble at the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) casino.
As head of field research and technical support at CPIB, Yeo is said to have stolen the $1.7 million between 2008 and August last year. He is known to and believed to have spent slightly more than $240,000 at the casino between 4 May and 8 September last year, around which time the bureau first caught wind of his alleged activity.
Among the charges are instances of Yeo swiping more than $700,000 in cash and $470,000 from a CPIB bank account. He was also said to have gambled at MBS at least 12 times, with transactions recorded from his POSB bank account ranging from $8,250 to $45,550 used for that purpose.
More involved?
DPM Teo, who is also the Minister in charge of the Civil Service, said in a statement, “This case is particularly serious because itinvolved a senior officer in theCPIB, which is entrusted with the mission of maintaining the integrity of the system."
“We will take strong measures to tighten up processes. PMO is examining whether any supervisory lapses may have contributed to this incident. If so, it will take action against the officers responsible," he added.
DPM Teo also acknowledged public concern over the number of high profile criminal cases involving civil servants.
Police staff sergeant Iskandar Bin Rahmat has been charged with the double murders at Kovan while former Central Narcotics Bureau chief Ng Boon Gay was recently acquitted of corruption. Ex-SCDF chief Peter Lim was also jailed six months for corruptly obtaining sexual favour earlier this year.
In 2011, Koh Seah Wee, formerly a deputy director of information technology at the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) was sentenced last month to 22 years' in jail for cheating the government of more than S$12 million.
"As there have been a number of high profile cases recently, the public is understandably concerned about whether this reflects systemic issues in the Public Service.The Service itself is concerned about this," said DPM Teo.
He revealed that the Prime Minister's office had asked both the Commercial Affairs Department and CPIB to conduct a study of public offficers investigated for corruption and other financial crimes over the last five years to see whether there was any change in their number or profile.
The study results will be shared by the Head of the Public Service next week.
PM Lee also initiated an an independent audit into possible lapses within CPIB's processes when this new case came to light and measures are now being implemented.
Associate MD for financial investigations at Kroll Advisory solutions, Stefano Demichellis told Yahoo! Singapore, that from a corporate governance standpoint, the recent case highlighted "red flags" within CPIB that had to be addressed.
