Singapore Civil Service

The Singapore Civil Service is the bureaucracy of civil servants that supports the Government of Singapore. Along with the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), statutory boards, and other independent government bodies, the civil service makes up the overall public service of Singapore. As of 2022, the civil service has about 87,000 employees.
Thomas Friedman of The New York Times considers the Singapore Civil Service to be one of the most efficient and uncorrupt bureaucracies in the world, with a high standard of discipline and accountability. In Singapore, a unique blend of Confucian values and meritocratic principles has shaped the nation’s public administration. Under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew, the government promoted a culture that revered education, discipline, and respect for authority—core tenets of Confucian thought—while ensuring that recruitment and promotion within the civil service were based on objective measures of merit. This dual emphasis enabled individuals from modest backgrounds to rise to leadership positions and helped build an efficient, corruption‑free bureaucracy along with upholding public trust in government institutions. It is also considered a key contributor to the success of Singapore since its independence from Malaysia.
Other commentators have argued that the persisting dominance of the People's Action Party (PAP) on the civil service has led to complacency and groupthink, with the supporting ministries being resistant to alternative views and fundamentally unprepared for a change of government.
The Civil Service was inherited from the British system. Since Singapore's independence in 1965, the Civil Service has been closely tied with the governing People's Action Party (PAP).
A prominent way in which the civil service recruits Singaporeans is through the limited and highly-competitive Public Service Commission (PSC) scholarship. These fully-funded government scholarships are awarded to prospective undergraduate and postgraduate students based on their academic performance and extra-curricular activities; they are not need-based scholarships. Upon graduation, PSC Scholars are mandated to work in the Civil Service for a number of years on a bond, usually ranging from 4 to 6 years. Scholars must repay the bond if they choose to resign from the Civil Service before the completion of their mandated service. Many scholars who have remained in government have gone on to hold senior positions. Most Singaporean ministers past and present, were previously merit-based academic scholars who attended elite universities in Singapore and worldwide, and had served various positions within Civil Service, before being selected by the PAP to join politics as their representative in elections and elected government.
Lee Kuan Yew often described education as the “great equalizer,” fostering a national commitment to scholarship and self‑cultivation. In practice, this meant that Singapore’s civil service was staffed by highly qualified professionals whose expertise underpinned rational, evidence‑based policymaking. This fusion of cultural heritage with modern meritocracy has not only propelled Singapore’s rapid development but also continues to inform its approach to governance and public policy.
The highest-ranking civil servant within a ministry is known as the permanent secretary. Permanent secretaries in each ministry used to be permanent in their postings. The current practice is to rotate them in various ministries every few years.
The highest-ranking civil servant in Singapore is the Head of the Civil Service. The incumbent Head of the Civil Service is Leo Yip, who took office in September 2017. He also holds the position of Permanent Secretary at both the Strategy Group, and National Security and Intelligence Coordination (NSIC) under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
The Singapore Government also appoints a cabinet minister to take charge of the operational responsibilities in the public service division and its integrity of the service, where the minister is duly liable to the Parliament of Singapore as well. The current minister appointed to this designation is Chan Chun Sing. Chan is serving concurrently as Minister with the Ministry of Education (Singapore).
In Singapore, the recruitment of teachers is integrated into the broader civil service framework, where educational professionals are viewed as key public servants. By selecting teachers solely from the top third of their graduating class, the Ministry of Education ensures that only the most capable and high-performing individuals enter the system. This approach reinforces the meritocratic ethos that also underpins the entire civil service.
This selective process creates a positive feedback loop. High-caliber teachers deliver superior classroom instruction, which improves student outcomes and contributes to a well-educated, skilled workforce. As these students grow into professionals and future civil servants, they further advance Singapore’s reputation for excellence in both the public sector and private sector of the economy. The success of these individuals, in turn, strengthens the meritocratic model, attracting more top-tier talent into the civil service and the teaching profession. This cyclical effect not only boosts the performance of the public sector but also fosters social mobility and national cohesion.
The salary of civil servants is organised into grades, with employees also being entitled to bonuses. The salary of Members of Parliament (MPs), Cabinet ministers, judges, the attorney-general, speaker, and auditor general are also based upon this scale. Salary grades generally begin with one or two letters, and end with a corresponding number. The top civil service grades are grades 1 to 4, upon which ministerial salary is also pegged.
Civil servants comprise four divisions: I (administrative and professional); II (management executives (MX)); III (Technical Support Scheme, Corporate Support Scheme, and Management Support Scheme); and IV (the Operations Support Scheme (OSS): manual workers and other unskilled labour). Division I employees are divided into Staff, Superscale and Timescale grades, in order of seniority, with superscale employees consisting of permanent secretaries and directors as well as their deputies. In 2017, the formal divisional categories were abolished.
For most civil servants, the pay scale consists of ranges rather than specific fixed salaries, and the actual salaries of civil servants can vary widely depending on performance and other factors.
The salaries of political appointments, such as the MPs and the speaker of Parliament, are ratios of the MR4 salary. While new ministers salaries start off at the MR4 grade, the prime minister may increase a minister's pay grade at his discretion. While the salaries of political leaders are generally fixed upon the pay grades, the salaries of civil servants may vary greatly. For example, the MR4 discount of being only 60% of the median top salary is done only for ministers, "to reflect the ethos of sacrifice that political service involves", and does not apply to civil servants.
The salaries of high-ranking civil servants in Singapore are some of the highest in the world, and are pegged to the salaries of the top-earning Singaporeans within the private sector. This has led to some criticisms towards the government; either overpaying its employees or crowding out the private sector and reducing the number of highly talented citizens either being employed within the private sector or pursuing entrepreneurship. In response, the government has maintained that a high pay is necessary to prevent corruption, staff attrition, and the influence of outside money in the public service, as well as to attract and retain talent from the private sector.
Civil servants need to declare casino visitation within a week if they went to 2 local casinos more than four times a month, or if they have bought an annual entry pass.