the release of a research paper claiming Singapore civil servants<\/span><\/a>, in particular those involved in rail planning, disproportionately bought homes near MRT stations that had not yet been publicly announced. The working paper, which was published by US-based non-profit organisation National Bureau of Economic Research, found that the pattern largely disappeared after 2011.<\/p>\nThe PSD said earlier on Sept 14 that it was reviewing the paper\u2019s data and methodology and would refer any issue to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau \u201cif there is a material basis to do so\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Sept 25, the PSD said the statistical patterns reported in the paper are a concern, and that it takes the assertions seriously.<\/p>\n
However, it noted that statistical patterns surfaced by the paper do not by themselves establish whether any individual officer actually had access to non-public information on MRT station locations at the relevant time, or whether such information influenced a property purchase.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For example, information or speculation about planned MRT lines and stations may already be in the public domain or used to market new property developments, it stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn officer may have purchased a unit in such a development for reasons unrelated to any non-public information,\u201d said the PSD.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese possibilities do not remove the need for scrutiny, but underscore why each transaction must be examined carefully before any conclusion is drawn.\u201d<\/p>\n
The PSD also set out the public service\u2019s rules and safeguards to prevent officers from using non-public information for personal benefit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It said public officers are required to declare their property purchases. There are also controls over access to sensitive information, as well as established channels for reporting suspected wrongdoing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
These rules and safeguards have been strengthened over time, the PSD added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Officers with non-public information that may be relevant to a proposed personal transaction \u2013 whether involving property, vehicles or financial instruments \u2013 must declare this and obtain approval before proceeding, it specified.<\/p>\n
The paper, which was published on Sept 11 and has not been peer-reviewed, used private-property transaction records from 1995 to 2019 and linked buyers to records of civil servants in the Singapore Government Directory Interactive (SGDI).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The researchers used six SGDI cohorts from 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2022, to identify civil servants and track their property transactions.<\/p>\n
They also used a proprietary dataset containing demographic and residential-address information, as well as the Council for Estate Agencies\u2019 public register of licensed real estate agents. The datasets were combined with private-property transaction records from legal or caveat filings, which included the names of buyers and sellers, according to the paper.<\/p>\n
The researchers then identified purchases near MRT stations that had been planned but not yet publicly announced. Their analysis found that civil servants purchased homes near such stations at higher rates than a matched group of non-civil servants, with the difference concentrated in the one to two years before announcements.<\/p>\n