Singapore government officers get long jail terms in fraud case

Nov 4, 2011, 11:09 GMT

Singapore - A Singapore court on Friday sentenced two former government officers to long jail terms in one of the biggest public-sector fraud scams in the city-state which takes pride in its graft-free image, a media report said.

Koh Seah Wee, 41, a former deputy director at the Singapore Land Authority, was sentenced to 22 years in prison, while his former subordinate Lim Chai Meng, 38, was sentenced to 15 years in jail, Channelnewsasia reported.

Both had pleaded guilty to embezzling 12.5 million Singapore dollars (7.15 million dollars) from government coffers and using the money to buy apartments as well as luxury cars, it said.

The judge said that crimes involving state funds had to be dealt with sternly, as they undermined good administration.

In Singapore's biggest corruption cases so far, a director of the Public Utilities Board was sentenced to 14 years in jail in 1995 for taking 13.9 million Singapore dollars in bribes.

Anti-corruption organization Transparency International rates Singapore the least corrupt nation in the world together with Denmark and New Zealand.

The government pays its top officials the worldwide highest salaries, arguing this is necessary to keep Singapore's governance top-notch and prevent corruption.

However, in May the government set up a committee to review the salaries, which Singaporeans have objected to for decades.