NRIC saga: Ministers involved must bear overall responsibility, says SM Teo

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will take the NRIC incident into account when evaluating the ministers in charge of the government agencies involved, said Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean on March 6.

- Osmond Chia

Highlighting the importance of accountability, he said the officers and senior management involved in missteps that led to the disclosure of full NRIC numbers on a government business portal could face a range of "appropriate measures", from counselling to retraining and reductions in their performance grade and performance-based payments.

SM Teo told Parliament that the political office-holders overseeing the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) and Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) have to bear overall responsibility for the organisations under their charge.

Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo and Second Minister for Finance Indranee Rajah have publicly accepted this responsibility and apologised for the incident, he said in a ministerial statement on the matter.

"The Prime Minister will take into account this incident in his evaluation of the Ministers," he added.

His statement comes after a review panel investigated the incident that took place on Dec 9, 2024, and found lapses in the process and communication between Acra and MDDI.

SM Teo told Parliament that trust in the public service is essential, and maintaining that trust is central to how the Government operates.

"When things go wrong, we are upfront with Singaporeans on where we have fallen short. We conduct thorough reviews and make improvements to our systems and processes to serve Singaporeans better while remaining fair to our officers," he added.

"This recent incident, while regrettable, demonstrates the Government's commitment to continuous improvement, to uphold the trust Singaporeans have placed in us."