Singapore Civil Service

Overview

The Civil Service was inherited from the British system. Since Singapore's independence in 1965, the Civil Service has been closely tied with the governing People's Action Party (PAP).

A prominent way in which the civil service recruits Singaporeans is through the limited and highly-competitive Public Service Commission (PSC) scholarship. These fully-funded government scholarships are awarded to prospective undergraduate and postgraduate students based on their academic performance and extra-curricular activities; they are not need-based scholarships. Upon graduation, PSC Scholars are mandated to work in the Civil Service for a number of years on a bond, usually ranging from 4 to 6 years. Scholars must repay the bond if they choose to resign from the Civil Service before the completion of their mandated service. Many scholars who have remained in government have gone on to hold senior positions. Most Singaporean ministers past and present, were previously merit-based academic scholars who attended elite universities in Singapore and worldwide, and had served various positions within Civil Service, before being selected by the PAP to join politics as their representative in elections and elected government.

The highest-ranking civil servant within a ministry is known as the permanent secretary. Permanent secretaries in each ministry used to be permanent in their postings. The current practice is to rotate them in various ministries every few years.

Head of the Civil Service

The highest-ranking civil servant in Singapore is the Head of the Civil Service. The incumbent Head of the Civil Service is Leo Yip, who took office in September 2017. He also holds the position of Permanent Secretary at both the Strategy Group, and National Security and Intelligence Coordination (NSIC) under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

Civil Service Minister

The Singapore Government also appoints a cabinet minister to take charge of the operational responsibilities in the public service division and its integrity of the service, where the minister is duly liable to the Parliament of Singapore as well. The current minister appointed to this designation is Chan Chun Sing. Chan is serving concurrently as Minister with the Ministry of Defence (Singapore).

Education

In Singapore, the recruitment of teachers is integrated into the broader civil service framework, where educational professionals are viewed as key public servants. By selecting teachers solely from the top third of their graduating class, the Ministry of Education ensures that only the most capable and high-performing individuals enter the system. This approach reinforces the meritocratic ethos that also underpins the entire civil service.

Salaries

The salary of civil servants is organised into grades, with employees also being entitled to bonuses. The salary of Members of Parliament (MPs), Cabinet ministers, judges, the attorney-general, speaker, and auditor general are also based upon this scale. Salary grades generally begin with one or two letters, and end with a corresponding number. The top civil service grades are grades 1 to 4, upon which ministerial salary is also pegged.

Civil servants comprise four divisions: I (administrative and professional); II (management executives (MX)); III (Technical Support Scheme, Corporate Support Scheme, and Management Support Scheme); and IV (the Operations Support Scheme (OSS): manual workers and other unskilled labour). Division I employees are divided into Staff, Superscale and Timescale grades, in order of seniority, with superscale employees consisting of permanent secretaries and directors as well as their deputies. In 2017, the formal divisional categories were abolished.

For most civil servants, the pay scale consists of ranges rather than specific fixed salaries, and the actual salaries of civil servants can vary widely depending on performance and other factors. The government's official policy is to keep public and political office salaries in line with industry standards. MR4 grade is pegged to the top income earners in Singapore, specifically accountants, bankers, engineers, lawyers, and senior leadership of local manufacturers and multi-national corporations.

The government last conducted a review of political officeholder salaries in 2017, where it rejected the suggestions of an independent committee to increase the salary ranges, instead opting to keep the ranges as they were in 2011. In the 2011 review of governmental salaries, the government excluded public servants from their final report, instead keeping the salary bands of civil servants at the same level as the 2007 report. Member of Parliament Denise Phua noted that with the exclusion of the administrative service (the highest level of leadership in the civil service) from the review, it is possible that some civil servants earn more than their Ministers. The government was due to review the salaries of political office holders in 2023, but has deferred doing so in light of global economic uncertainty. In 2022, the government increased the salaries of top public servants by 5 to 12% from the 2007 report.

The salaries of political appointments, such as the MPs and the speaker of Parliament, are ratios of the MR4 salary. While new ministers salaries start off at the MR4 grade, the prime minister may increase a minister's pay grade at his discretion. While the salaries of political leaders are generally fixed upon the pay grades, the salaries of civil servants may vary greatly. For example, the MR4 discount of being only 60% of the median top salary is done only for ministers, "to reflect the ethos of sacrifice that political service involves", and does not apply to civil servants.

The salary of the Chief Justice of Singapore is currently not disclosed to the public. In previous government documents, it had been pegged at Staff Grade II, Staff Grade IV, and above Staff Grade IV. Legal service officers have been previously pegged to judicial salaries and those of private practice lawyers.

The salaries of high-ranking civil servants in Singapore are some of the highest in the world. This has led to some criticisms towards the government for overpaying its employees or crowding out the private sector and reducing the number of highly talented citizens within the private sector. In response, the government has maintained that a high pay is necessary to prevent corruption, staff attrition, and the influence of outside money in the public service, as well as to attract and retain talent from the private sector.

Code of conduct

Civil servants need to declare casino visitation within a week if they went to 2 local casinos more than four times a month, or if they have bought an annual entry pass.

References

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