Parliament to scrutinise study linking civil servants' property purchases to planned MRT stations
Singapore's parliament on 6 Oct will hear questions on a working paper that found civil servants involved in rail planning bought property near planned MRT stations before locations were public. MPs have filed 11 questions on the study, as well as queries on rising retrenchments, the North-South Cor
The government's review of property purchases by officers involved in rail planning will come under scrutiny in parliament on Tuesday (6 Oct), after a working paper showed that purchases were made near planned MRT stations before their locations were public. Members of parliament have filed 11 questions on the working paper, what the authorities' review has found so far, and whether safeguards against the misuse of non-public information should be strengthened.
The study by the US-based National Bureau of Economic Research reported a statistical link between property purchases and people its authors classified as civil servants in agencies connected to rail planning. The paper has not been peer-reviewed. Singapore's Public Service Division (PSD) said in mid-September that it was reviewing the working paper's data and methodology, and on 25 September said the government was also reviewing property purchases made between 2007 and 2011 by officers involved in rail planning to assess if there was 'actual misconduct'.
MP Joan Pereira (PAP-Tanjong Pagar) asked Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who is also Minister for Finance, whether PSD had completed its review and what initial findings or anomalies had been identified. MP He Ting Ru (WP-Sengkang) asked if civil servants were required to declare property purchases that may relate to non-public information on future transport infrastructure, and how such declarations were cross-checked against officers' access to planning information. NMP Terence Ho asked the prime minister whether the government believed there was a need to strengthen safeguards, including rules and penalties, to ensure public officers did not use privileged information for material gain.
Separately, MPs filed 10 questions concerning retrenchments, which rose to 4,620 in the second quarter — the highest since Q4 2020. MP Valerie Lee (PAP-Pasir Ris-Changi) asked Acting Minister for Manpower Jasmin Lau how career conversion programmes were assessed for sustained employment among mature workers, and whether further measures were being considered to support long-term employment for workers aged 50 and above. MP Patrick Tay (PAP-Pioneer) asked which sectors consistently recorded the lowest six-month re-entry rates for retrenched resident PMETs in the last 14 quarters.
Several questions were filed about the two-year delay in opening the North-South Corridor. The viaduct section from Admiralty Road West to Lentor Avenue is expected to open in phases from 2029, instead of 2027 as previously announced. The Land Transport Authority said last month that the project faced challenging ground conditions and complex engineering work. MP Louis Chua (WP-Sengkang) asked Minister for Transport Jeffrey Siow whether pre-construction site investigations had identified the geological and subsurface risks that were later encountered, and whether LTA could publish the ground information provided to tenderers and the actual conditions at affected sites.
MPs also raised questions about the Primary 1 registration process after several changes were announced last month. MP Elysa Chen (PAP-Bishan-Toa Payoh) asked Education Minister Desmond Lee whether registration pressure was expected to shift toward Phase 2A as schools discontinue Phase 2B parent volunteer schemes, and whether Phase 2A criteria would be reviewed alongside Phase 2B. MP Tin Pei Ling (PAP-Marine Parade-Braddell Heights) asked whether the changes could be deferred by a year to allow families to transition.
