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SINGAPORE: A 25-year-old Housing and Development Board (HDB) officer was fined S$2,000 on Wednesday (Dec 20) for sharing confidential information with a reporter.

Ng Han Yuan was charged last month for breaching the Official Secrets Act by “wrongfully communicating confidential information”. He pleaded guilty on Wednesday.



Dressed in a jacket, white shirt and black pants, Ng appeared relaxed in court. Just before court started, he was seen huddled outside in prayer with five other individuals, who appeared to be family members.

Ng was represented by lawyer Kevin Cheng from Goodwins Law, despite telling the court during an earlier appearance that he would not engage one.



According to the police, HDB made a police report in July after receiving queries from a Straits Times reporter on the launch of its new resale portal. The information had not been made public at the time of the reporter’s query.

The police said its investigations found that Ng had shared confidential information with the reporter, identified in court documents as Ms Janice Tai, in May.



Subsequently, Ms Tai approached other parties relating to the portal. The police said Ms Tai had been issued a “stern warning”, understood to be for the offence of receiving confidential information under the Official Secrets Act.

According to court documents, Ng was an estate manager with HDB’s estate administration and property division’s resale operation section.



PAIR MET THROUGH DATING APP

The court heard that Ng and Ms Tai had met through a mobile dating app Coffee Meets Bagel in March where they exchanged phone numbers and communicated through messaging platform WhatsApp.

Court documents state that they became friends and met up once a fortnight.

On May 31, they went out for dinner to celebrate Ng's birthday, where they also had a few alcoholic drinks.

Ng, who was aware that Ms Tai was a Singapore Press Holdings employee and that she wrote articles for a newspaper, told her about his work, while also sharing confidential information about the resale portal.

When Ms Tai asked Ng whether she could run a story about the portal, Ng told her that the information was confidential and that she should not publish anything about the project.

Between late June and Jul 16, Ms Tai messaged Ng on WhatsApp asking if the online directory was for resale flats only. Ng replied that the project was indeed for resale flats only but the new online portal would also cater to new and rental flats.

Ng also confirmed that HDB would create a new resale portal which would streamline the resale transaction process by integrating all the eligibility checks on a single platform.

All this information was confidential and Ng was not authorised to communicate such details to Ms Tai.

PROSECUTOR SOUGHT MAXIMUM FINE FOR DETERRENCE

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kumaresan Gohubalan sought the maximum fine of S$2,000, saying that while Ng had pleaded guilty at the first instance, the principle of deterrence should apply. He said despite knowing Ms Tai was a reporter and had "alerted" him to her intention of publishing the story, Ng, being a civil servant, still revealed the information.

The prosecutor also said that while Ng had cooperated, he was "caught red-handed" and that it was only through police investigations that his involvement was revealed. He said Ng concealed his involvement during HDB's own internal investigations.

He said Ng had also caused HDB "significant inconvenience" as it had to bring forward the resale portal's launch to October instead of January 2018.

NG DID NOT BENEFIT FROM DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION: LAWYER

In setting out Ng's mitigation plea, his lawyer Kevin Cheng noted that Ng did not benefit from the disclosure of the information to Ms Tai. He said Ng had done so to "placate" Ms Tai, and in the hope that she would only release the information after HDB did.

Mr Cheng said Ng had developed romantic feelings for Ms Tai and "got carried away". But when he heard she was going to run the story, Mr Cheng told the court Ng made "numerous attempts" to discourage her from doing so.

In addition, Mr Cheng said the information on the portal was not "state secrets per se" and that the consequences were not as far-reaching and on the "less serious end of the spectrum".

Mr Cheng sought a S$1,000 fine for the offence.



Outside court, a relieved Ng told reporters he made an honest mistake for which he was remorseful.

"I let my guard down and inadvertently gave information to someone I considered a personal friend," he said.

"So I'm grateful the court recognises the particular circumstances under which the disclosure of information was made and has ordered a fine without a custodial sentence.

"I hope to be given a chance to learn from this episode and to continue to work for HDB in the future because I never intended for the information to be used as a story or cause my organisation any harm," Ng said.

A HDB spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday that Ng was still suspended from his duties. Ng was first suspended in November pending the outcome of the court case.



The spokesperson added that Ng's case was an "isolated incident".

HDB takes a serious view of any unauthorised disclosure of information, and will take appropriate disciplinary action against the officer," it said.

Editor-in-chief of Singapore Press Holdings' English/Malay/Tamil Media Group, Mr Warren Fernandez, said in a statement that the paper will take "collective responsibility".



"The OSA is a wide, sweeping law, covering all manner of government information. Like it or not, our journalists have had to navigate this difficult terrain, and we give our full support to all of them in doing their jobs on behalf of the paper," Mr Fernandez said.

"In the same way, we stand by our colleague, Janice Tai, who was pursuing information for a story with the knowledge and backing of her supervisors."



Mr Fernandez also added that the paper will "take some time to review what happened in this case and draw lessons" from it. He also called it a "difficult day for all of us in the media".

