Singapore’s year of living scandalously

Last year was unprecedented in independent Singapore’s history. Difficulties have arisen in past years for the government, the economy, specific sections of the Singaporean populace or in terms of escalating repression, but 2023 encompassed all the above. Recovering Singapore’s reputation for clean governance will not be an easy task.

In January 2023, six executives of Keppel Corp, a government-linked company, were found by the US Department of Justice to have paid US$55 million in bribes to win contracts with Brazilian oil giant Petrobras.

When the case reached Singapore, however, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) declined prosecuting or even identifying the culprits due to “lack of evidence”, issuing “stern warnings” to the ex-Keppel executives instead.

In May 2023, two cabinet ministers fended off opposition suggestions that they had received special treatment when securing leases for luxury state-owned bungalows. It was especially awkward for Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam as the properties, which were part of his ministerial portfolio, had been leased to the ministers without undergoing a competitive tender process.

In the course of his defense, Shanmugam disclosed that he was paying a monthly rent of S$26,500 (US$19,754)— an explanation unlikely to win him much sympathy from ordinary Singaporeans living in public housing and facing a cost of living crisis.

Come July, investigations by the CPIB and former deputy prime minister Teo Chee Hean cleared both ministers of any impropriety. But by then, Singaporeans were already reading about the next scandal — the CPIB’s arrest of Minister for Transport S Iswaran, on corruption charges related to Singapore’s successful bid to host the Formula