Singapore puts transport minister on leave amid graft probe

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he instructed Transport Minister S. Iswaran to go on leave as the city’s anti-graft agency started a probe.

The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau uncovered a case and asked to open a formal investigation that would involve interviewing Iswaran and others, Lee said in a statement on Wednesday, without specifying the reasoning for the investigation or the target.

“CPIB acknowledges the interest by members of the public in this case because a minister is being interviewed,” the anti-graft agency said in a statement. “CPIB will investigate this case thoroughly with strong resolve to establish the facts and the truth, and to uphold the rule of law.”

Singapore pays its top officials among the world’s highest public salaries and prides itself on its image for low corruption. The city-state is ranked as the fifth-least corrupt country in the world, according to the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. 

The probe adds to the challenges of the ruling People’s Action Party, which is navigating a succession plan. The island is scheduled to hold a general election by 2025, though polls could be held earlier. The PAP, which has ruled Singapore since its independence in 1965, is seeking to strengthen its hand after its worst showing in the 2020 election.

Iswaran was elected as a member of parliament in 1997 and was appointed to the cabinet in 2006. As transport minister, his key focus is to rebuild Singapore as an air hub in the aftermath of the pandemic and boost the nation as a maritime center. He’s also Singapore’s minister-in-charge of trade relations. Senior Minister of State Chee Hong Tat will be acting minister for transport.

“The optics certainly don’t look good for the PAP government, which has always prided itself on incorruptibility,” said Eugene Tan, a law professor at Singapore Management University,

In 1986, then-Minister for National Development Teh Cheang Wan was investigated for accepting bribes. He died before he could be formally charged in court.

Last month, a government review into colonial bungalows rented by two cabinet ministers found no evidence of corruption or criminal wrongdoing after the opposition questioned whether the officials were paying less than market rates for the properties.