SINGAPORE — A Housing and Development Board (HDB) officer who was fined S$2,000 by the courts for relaying confidential information to a journalist from The Straits Times has been issued a stern reprimand by his employer and will be redeployed to a new role.

The HDB has taken disciplinary action against Mr Ng Han Yuan, a spokesperson told TODAY on Friday (Feb 9).

“He has been issued a stern reprimand which will impede his eligibility for salary increment, bonus and consideration of progression for a stipulated period of time,” she said.

“He will be redeployed to a new role in HDB where he can start afresh,” she said without providing further details.

Mr Ng, 25, was fined in December for breaching the Official Secrets Act. He had pleaded guilty to sharing information on HDB’s new resale transactions portal in the middle of last year with Ms Janice Tai.

The project had not been made public at the time.

Ms Tai sent queries on the project to various parties and HDB’s group director of its estate administration and property group, Ms Tan Chew Ling, suspected a leak and filed a police report on July 27.

The HDB released information on the portal and streamlined resale flat transaction process on Oct 19 last year.

Mr Ng, who got acquainted with Ms Tai through a dating application, was suspended from his duties as an estate manager with the HDB’s resale operations section.

He told reporters after the court verdict that he had made an honest mistake and was remorseful.

He said he hoped to be given a chance to learn from the episode and to continue working for the HDB.

“I never intended for the information to be used as a story or cause my organisation any harm,” he had said. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FARIS MOKHTAR