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The Institute for Ethics and Economic
Policy (IEEP) |
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540 HAVE REPORTED CORRUPTION SO FAR THIS YEAR It’s
reported that so far this year 540 have reported on suspected fraudsters.
About 4 out of 10 are anonymous but brought 15 people to court for corruption
charge. Last year 44 corruption cases were uncovered by that way. In 1999,
1,128 reports were received and 777 cases investigated and those figures
recorded in three years later were 991 and 515 (2000); 812 and 497 (2001);
and 780 and 371 (2002) (The Straits Times,
Singapore
Armed Force lieutenant-colonel charged with fake bids. A
Singapore Armed Forces lieutenant-colonel has been charged with 67 counts of
corruption over fake quotations submitted for repair works in the training
areas under his command. The alleged scam saw Lt-Col Ong, who was authorised
to award contracts up to a certain value, colluding with a contractor friend,
who eventually secured the deals. (Straits
Times Interactive E&Y partner
held in corruption probe. It was reported that a partner at Ernst
& Young was among 13 people arrested by
Manager faces 105 graft charges. A former employee of United
Engineers is accused of taking kickbacks during his 11 years as an
engineering manager. According to the courts, Lee Lip Hiong took cash for
helping a firm win work. Hiong was charged with 105 counts of corruption, in
a district court. Lee allegedly started taking bribes on
FORMER
CORRUPTION CASES IN SINGAPORE DECLINE DESPITE TOUGHER ECONOMIC TIMES. According to a newspaper report, Singapore has seen a decline in the number of bribery cases before its courts over the past three years. This trend comes even as Singapore is trying to recover from a recession. According to a 2002 survey conducted by Transparency International, Singapore is one of the least corrupt nations in the world, behind a handful of Scandinavian countries and New Zealand. (Associated Press, September 16, 2002, summary by Pavlidis George). CIVIL SERVANT JAILED FOR $535
BRIBES. District Judge Tey Tsun Hang has sentenced the former head of the
Singapore Consulate in Chennai, India Aloysius Michael to six months of jail
time for receiving bribes worth 535 dollars. Although the bribes were
considered small, the court said that the sentence is just appropriate
considering that the 32-year-old ex-vice-consul is a high-ranking public
servant. Aside from imprisonment, the defendant must pay a penalty of 535
dollars. Last August 20, Michael got a guilty verdict and was convicted on
two charges of accepting bribes following a six-day trial. (The Straits Times
September 4, 2002, Summary by Eliza Villarino). ELEVEN
BUNKER SURVEYORS CONVICTED. 11 Singapore bunker surveyors were convicted of
corruption. They had admitted to charges of accepting bribes to overstate the
quantity and/or quality of fuel delivered to vessels. The bribes were paid by
employees of Navi Marine Services Pte Ltd, a fuel supplier whose operations
were recently suspended by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).
The 11 convicted men were fined between $4,000 and $65,000. A penalty cash
forfeit equivalent to the bribe taken was also ordered. Any payment default
will result in between one month and 16 months prison. (The Business Times,
February 6, 2002, summary by Pavlidis George).
AIRPORT EMPLOYEE FINED S$5,000 FOR CORRUPTION Stanley Wong, Singapore Airport Terminal Services employee, was fined S$5,000 for not charging Cullen Matthews, Australian traveler, regular excess baggage fees. The baggage charge should have been S$420, however, Wong accepted S$150 and A$50 from Matthews during a meeting in a men’s toilet, then gave Matthews his boarding pass. (Media Corp. News, Mar. 19, 2001, summary by Marg Reynolds).
Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan have been ranked least
corrupted in Asia, according to the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy
(PERC). These rankings surpass even those of United States and Australia,
which previously set the benchmarks for being least corrupted. To obtain
these findomgs, PERC had surveyed 700 expatriate businessmen who were working
in 12 Asian countries and graded the systems on a scale of 0 to 10, the
lowest signifying the least amount of corruption. Singapore scored
a squeaky-clean 0.83, outdoing US’s 1.77 and Australia’s 1.72. On the
other extreme were Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Thailand, the Philippines and
China. Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan were rated below average. PERC has
noted that the 1997 Asian economic crisis did not teach any lessons about the
dangers of corruption. In fact, in some countries, corruption even worsened.
(18 March 2001, Channel News Asia, summary by Lu J.L.) In a radical move to stamp out rampant match-fixing and corruption, the Football Association of Singapore will subject all footballers to lie-detector tests starting from next year. Singapore has been often embarrassed by repeated accusations over the past year of widespread match-fixing. Police have estimated that as many as 15 players and officials from six clubs were under investigation. German import Lutz Pfannenstiel and Australian Mirko Jurilj are currently on trial for allegedly fixing matches. The last foreign players to be convicted are Australian player Abbas Saad who was fined 50,000 dollars in 1995 and Czech Michal Vana in 1994 who was arrested on similar allegations but jumped bail and fled the country. (Yahoo Asia Finance, December 5, 2000, summary by Lu C.L.) The Straits Times,
A weeky Archive. Business Times, Singapore BRIBERY SCANDAL MARS LOCAL SOCCER
TOURNAMENT Operation Foul Play took Singaporean
Professional soccer back a step as fifteen players and six clubs were linked
to bribery and match-fixing. So far,
the operation has managed to land Australian Mirko Jurilj who plays for Semabawang
Rangers and Lutz Pfannenstiel who plays for Geylang United
in court for accepting bribes. Both of the players remain locked up after not
being able to raise the $58,000 bail. Jurilj was accused of taking a $13,000
bribe and Pfannenstiel was said to have accepted $7,000 from a Mr. Sivakumar Madasamy. Madasamy was said to
have used the money to bet on the player´s behalf on matches they were
involved in. Sources say that fifteen players from six
clubs remain under suspicion of matchfixing. Internet Soccer,
September 2, 2000 http://www.internetsoccer.com SINGAPORE, Last month pay raise were
awarded to government officials of Singapore. Singaporeans have criticized this raise, because they are the
highest-paid government officials in the world. During the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 the government
cut employers contributions to the Central Provident Fund (Singapore’s
compulsory savings scheme) by 10 percentage points and this cut has been only
partially restored, and Singaporean workers are being told to be patient about
their Central Provident Fund restauration
and in the mean time government officials are receiving raises. Singapore scores high in International
survey for clean corruption free overnment, this is attributed to its high
government pay. (DJ News, July 9,
2000, summary by Rosado Maritza). SINGAPORE: POLICE REFUSED TO ACCEPT BRIBE http://support.casals.com/aaaflash1/busca.asp?ID_AAAControl=2972 The Straits Times, August 19, 2000 http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg
The Index of Economic Freedom
(by Driscoll-Holmes-Kirkpatrick) for 2001 places Singapore in the “Free”
category with a rank of 2 (Ranks range from 1 for Hong Kong to 155 for North Korea,
Wall Street Journal, Nov. 1, 2000). H. D. Vinod’s trimmed correlation
analysis indicates that countries free from economic regulation are less
corrupt. After allowing for some exceptions by 20% trimming, the correlation
is near 0.9. |
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Design:
Theo den Brinker |
Copyright:
Hrishikesh D. Vinod 2000 |
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Updated: |
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