APPOINTMENTS, PROMOTIONS, APPEALS AND DISCIPLINARY CASES

Appointments and Promotions

The PSC is the approving authority for the appointment of candidates to the Administrative Service and the promotion of these officers to Grade 7 and above. The PSC also appoints/promotes officers to Superscale Grade 9 and above in the Auditing Service, and to Superscale D/Grade 7 and above in the rest of the Civil Service.

In 2022, the PSC considered 27 candidates and found 20 suitable for appointment to the Administrative Service.

The PSC considered 41 officers for promotion to Superscale D/Grade 7 and above, including those in the Administrative Service. Of these, 36 officers were promoted.

The PSC considered and found an officer suitable for promotion to Superscale Grade 9 and above in the Auditing Service.

Appointment and Promotion of Chief Executive Officers of Statutory Boards

The PSC considers the suitability of candidates for appointment as Chief Executive Officers of Statutory Boards and subsequent renewals. The PSC also considers the suitability of the Chief Executive Officers for promotion to Superscale D/Grade 7 and above.

In 2022, the PSC considered and concurred with the agencies’ recommendation to

a) appoint eight officers as new Chief Executive Officers;

b) renew the terms of 13 existing Chief Executive Officers;

c) appoint or extend 34 officers as Acting Chief Executive Officers; and

d) promote one Chief Executive Officer to Superscale D/Grade 7 and above.

Appeals

In 2022, the PSC saw two further appeals for promotion/against termination under the Public Service (Personnel Boards and Appeals Board) Regulations.

Discipline

The PSC is vested with the disciplinary control of civil servants under Article 110(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore. Civil servants who misconduct themselves are dealt with under one of the three disciplinary procedures^ listed below:

a) The Public Service (Disciplinary Proceedings) Regulations (“the Regulations”).

b) The Public Service Commission (Delegation of Disciplinary Functions) Directions (“the Directions”).

c) The Public Service Commission (Prison Officers) (Disciplinary Proceedings – Delegation of Functions) Directions (“the Prisons Directions”).

Cases under the latter two categories are collectively known as being under “the Directions”.

^Officers may be disciplined under the Regulations when it involves serious misconducts; where the possible penalties include a dismissal or a reduction in rank. For less serious misconducts, officers may be disciplined under the Directions or Prisons Directions, as appropriate. The PSC has delegated to the Permanent Secretaries / Commissioner of Prisons part of its functions pertaining to the discipline of officers/junior prison officers for minor misconduct.

In 2022, the PSC embarked on a review of the disciplinary legislation with an objective to help Ministries and agencies better handle disciplinary cases in an expeditious manner, without compromising rigour and fairness. As part of the legislative review, rules, policies and processes were also modernised to align with progressive employment practices.

These efforts have helped the PSC process and complete significantly more discipline cases compared to previous years. In 2022, 134 new disciplinary cases were reported to the PSC. Together with 159 cases that were brought forward from previous years, the PSC processed a total of 293 cases in the year. Of these cases, 198 (~68%) were completed, including 109 cases which were completed under the Regulations and 62 cases which were completed under the Directions. Formal disciplinary action was not instituted against the officers in the remaining 27 cases.

The most common types of misconduct cases under the Regulations were Non-Compliance of Orders, Indebtedness and Sexual Offences. Table 1 shows the breakdown of the 109 cases completed under the Regulations in 2022.