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SINGAPORE: The Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) said on Wednesday (Jul 15) it has retrenched 93 officers as it completes the first phase of its transition to a new operating model.<\/p>\n
It expects to let go of 7 to 9 per cent \u2013<\/strong> or about 300 workers \u2013<\/strong> of its workforce over the next two years as it shifts from a “one-off project-delivery model” to a “continuous product-ownership model”.<\/p>\n GovTech, which is a statutory board under the Ministry of Digital Development and Information, has about 3,900 permanent and contract staff and supports the technology needs of more than 50 government agencies.<\/p>\n Public sector layoffs in Singapore are rare: The last publicly reported retrenchments in the civil service date back to 2006 to 2010, when 20 officers left under the Special Resignation Scheme, according to a written parliamentary reply in November 2011. Then-Deputy Prime Minister and Minister-in-charge of the Civil Service Teo Chee Hean said that all 20 officers received compensation generally calculated at one month’s last-drawn salary for each year of service, capped at 25 years.<\/p>\n GovTech’s compensation package follows a similar formula, with one month’s salary for every year of service capped at 25 years, on top of a three-month ex-gratia payment, salary and benefits through a six-week handover and notice period, and an additional completion payment for those asked to stay on to complete handovers or operate critical systems.<\/p>\n The workforce transformation will be implemented in three phases over two years, beginning this month. GovTech said the first phase, which covers teams at GovTech as well as those it deployed to six other public agencies, has now been completed.<\/p>\n In this phase, out of the 305 officers identified from these teams, 102 officers were retained in current roles, while another 110 officers will be retrained into new roles under apprenticeships.<\/p>\n Two further phases are expected to affect GovTech’s employees in the teams embedded within other government agencies, with the scope of the next phase to be announced by November 2026.<\/p>\n GovTech said the phased approach is intended to minimise disruption to public services “while giving our people sufficient time and support to make the transition successfully”.<\/p>\n In a note to staff, GovTech chairman Chng Kai Fong said the shift was driven by the need for GovTech to own and run critical government systems in-house, rather than relying solely on vendors.<\/p>\n He cited services such as Singpass, Parents Gateway and CDC vouchers that require continuous building, operation and improvement rather than one-off delivery.<\/p>\n “This is not an AI-driven downsizing exercise. This shift began years before the current AI wave,” he wrote.<\/p>\n GovTech was “changing shape, not shrinking”, he added, and expects to employ more people by the end of the transformation, with continued hiring for software engineers, product managers, designers, data specialists and cybersecurity professionals.<\/p>\n Mr Chng said the leadership had considered stretching the transition over a longer period and relying mainly on natural attrition, but decided against it.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery year of delay leaves critical systems older and widens the gap between what Singaporeans need and what our current model can deliver. That is why we have had to make difficult choices.\u201d<\/p>\n Chief executive Goh Wei Boon said the agency needed to strengthen its ability to “build, run and continuously improve” the products it owns as digital services grow in scale and complexity.<\/p>\n “Citizens and agencies expect digital services that are more secure, reliable and responsive to their needs,” he said.<\/p>\n For officers retrenched in future phases, Mr Chng said the same principles would apply: whether a role exists in the future operating model, with retraining and redeployment offered first, and direct communication to affected staff ahead of any public announcement.<\/p>\n In its official statement, GovTech said it has already redeployed and converted a “substantial number” of officers into new roles, and would continue internal redeployment where possible. Officers in project and vendor management roles facing changes are being offered full-salary apprenticeships and structured retraining to move into product ownership and related work.<\/p>\n Mr Chng and Mr Goh are expected to hold an “Ask Me Anything” session with staff on Thursday.<\/p>\n The Amalgamated Union of Statutory Board Employees (AUSBE), an affiliated union of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), said it was informed of GovTech\u2019s restructuring plans early and had worked with the agency to identify alternatives to retrenchment, including retraining, apprenticeship and redeployment opportunities.<\/p>\n AUSBE general secretary Gabriel Ng said the union had also negotiated an enhanced support package for exiting officers beyond what is provided for under the collective agreement. Beyond the standard one month’s notice and one month’s salary per year of service capped at 25 years, AUSBE said it secured a three-month ex-gratia payment, a pro-rated performance bonus, and six months of paid union membership for members.<\/p>\n The union said career coaches from NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute were on-site to provide personalised coaching and job-matching support for affected Singaporean and permanent resident officers, with close to 30 companies offering more than 300 technology-related vacancies.<\/p>\n The officers have also been invited to a curated tech career fair on Aug 4, AUSBE said.<\/p>\n In a Facebook post, NTUC deputy secretary-general Desmond Choo said that when employers engage unions early, workers’ concerns can be better addressed and support can be provided in a timely manner to facilitate smoother transitions.<\/p>\n “We are committed to helping the affected GovTech workers for as long as they take to land another opportunity,” said Mr Choo, who is also Minister of State for Defence.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Ministry of Manpower said GovTech’s payment package for retrenched employees goes beyond what is recommended under the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Excess Manpower and Responsible Retrenchment.<\/p>\n The affected workers are also being supported through this transition, with tailored career coaching, job matching and employment support, said a ministry spokesperson.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE: The Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) said on Wednesday (Jul 15) it has retrenched 93 officers as it completes the first phase of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--viejdNq4--\/c_crop,h_900,w_1600,x_0,y_22\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/07\/15\/govtech_01.jpg?itok=IhGqWnQD","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4212,26561,1244,4864,7357,2936,15033],"class_list":["post-68949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-cuts","tag-govtech","tag-jobs","tag-model","tag-operating","tag-phase","tag-transition","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}“NOT AN AI-DRIVEN DOWNSIZING”: CHAIRMAN<\/h2>\n
UNION SAYS IT WAS INFORMED EARLY<\/h2>\n
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