National Library Board deputy director jailed 4 weeks for breaching Official Secrets Act over Covid-19 reopening information

SINGAPORE — A public servant, who shared classified information about the resumption of activities under the second phase of Singapore’s economic reopening during the Covid-19 pandemic, was jailed for four weeks on Tuesday (May 24).

Chua Wee Lin, 52, pleaded guilty to one charge of wrongful communication of information under the Official Secrets Act.

He was the deputy director of the property and facilities management department at the National Library Board when he shared the information, including dates for the reopening of country clubs and related recreational activities, in a WhatsApp chat group.

The group had 19 members who were part of the Singapore Polytechnic Graduate Guild’s executive committee.

They then forwarded the information to others before it was officially released and the details went viral among the public.

Chua described the information he sent to the chat as “insider news” and said that there would be an “official announcement” only four days later.

The court heard that on the morning of June 11 in 2020, Chua was among more than 100 public servants who received a deck of PowerPoint slides containing details on the plans for Singapore's reopening of economic activities.

Chua received the slides because the plans included the reopening of libraries in Singapore. Other details related to the reopening of clubs and societies, food-and-beverage outlets and cinemas, as well as information pertaining to other recreational activities here.

He then attended a virtual meeting to discuss the plans.

During the meeting, he took a photograph of one of the PowerPoint slides, which discussed when various registered clubs and societies would be allowed to open again, what facilities within the clubs would be allowed to open, and the safe management measures to be imposed.

He sent the photo to his WhatsApp chat group members and told them to wait for an official announcement from then-National Development Minister Lawrence Wong, who was co-chair of the Government’s Covid-19 task force.

The court heard that Chua was not authorised to share the information and he knew that it had not been made public.

Some of the chat group members forwarded the information to their friends and family.

One of his text messages then went viral among the public and was forwarded many times on WhatsApp before it eventually reached staff members from the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

A police report was then filed.

Chua was also aware of news reports regarding the arrests of other public servants under the Official Secrets Act for leaking Covid-19 information.

The prosecution said that several government agencies had to expend resources to assess whether the leaks were true, from which systems or files it had originated, who had access to the files and from whom the leak started, who had received the leaked information, whether they had passed it on, how far the network of leaks went, and the number of occasions leaks had taken place.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Lim Shin Hui and Selene Yap said: “The public service also had to adjust its approach in dealing with the pandemic because of these leaks. The adjustments included ring-fencing certain processes, which reduced the speed of information flow between agencies while investigations were ongoing.”

Chua could have been fined up to S$2,000 or jailed for up to two years, or punished with both.