Corruption In Singapore’s Civil Service?

A new academic study has raised a serious question in Singapore: did some civil servants use advance knowledge of future Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations to buy properties before their locations became public?

A September 2026 National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper analysed private-property transactions from 1995 to 2019.

Researchers reported that civil servants purchased properties near planned MRT stations at disproportionately higher rates than comparable non-civil servants, particularly one to two years before public announcements.

Their statistical modelling estimated about 113 excess purchase incidences involving civil servants in the two years before announcements.

Another 108 estimated excess purchase incidences involved people identified as relatives or co-registrants of civil servants in the three years before announcements.

Combined, that is 221 estimated excess purchase incidences with a gross acquisition value of S$270 million.

This does not mean researchers uncovered 221 corrupt transactions. These are statistical estimates based on differences in purchasing patterns.

Still, some findings warrant scrutiny. The pattern was concentrated among mid-level civil servants and stronger among officials working in agencies involved in rail planning.

Researchers also compared civil servants with real-estate agents and corporate board members, but reported finding no similar pattern among these groups.

There are questions about the research itself.

The working paper has not been peer-reviewed. Two National University of Singapore (NUS) professors named in its acknowledgements said they knew nothing of the paper and requested their names be removed.

Singapore's Public Service Division (PSD) is reviewing the paper's data and methodology. It says the matter will be referred to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) if there is a material basis.

The crucial question is whether investigators can connect these statistical patterns to specific officials, confidential MRT information and actual property transactions.