Transparency in Governance: Questions Surrounding Minister K Shanmugam’s $88 Million Property Sale
As reported by multiple web portals, Minister for Law and Home Affairs, Mr K Shanmugam, has sold his Good Class Bungalow at Astrid Hill for $88 million. According to these articles, the sale took place in September 2023 and the assets placed in a trust managed by UBS Trustees (Singapore) Pte Ltd, with the beneficiary listed as Jasmine Villa Settlement.
In view of this, two points of interest arise.
One, Mr Shanmugam, usually quick to counter allegations about his personal dealings, has not refuted reports on this episode, despite there being widespread and ongoing discussion of the case on the internet for weeks.
Two, given that housing and property prices are crucial issues in Singapore, the sale of Mr Shanmugam’s property is a matter of massive public concern. Yet, it is only alternative media outlets that have afforded this issue coverage; the Singapore Press Holdings and Mediacorp remain tightlipped.
Given these circumstances, the Singapore Democratic Party calls on Minister Shanmugam and the Government to answer the following questions:
1. Who is the purchaser of Mr Shanmugam’s property and is this buyer a Singapore citizen?
2. Who/what entity is the owner of Jasmine Villa Settlement?
3. Did Mr Shanmugam disclose to former PM Lee Hsien Loong and current PM Lawrence Wong the existence and details of the transaction and, if so, what were the PMs’ responses?
4. What were the steps taken by Minister Shanmugam and the Government to ensure that the funds for the sale were not involved in money-laundering schemes?
5. How was the process of the valuation of the property conducted and by whom?
The Ministerial Code of Conduct unambiguously states that: “A Minister must scrupulously avoid any actual or apparent conflict of interest between his office and his private financial interests.”
This aforementioned sale reportedly took place shortly after the Ridout Road episode, which involved another Minister, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, and remains unsatisfactorily dealt with in the eyes of many Singaporeans.
Thus, it is important that Mr Shanmugam urgently answers the above questions, for the matter involves not just him but also his party, the Government, and Singapore at large.
