'There's nothing for me to answer': Tharman on son's rotation in MOF to prevent possible conflict of interest

SINGAPORE – Presidential candidate Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s son Akilan was rotated to a different directorate within the Ministry of Finance (MOF) in July to pre-empt any possible potential conflict of interest, said the ministry and Public Service Commission (PSC) Secretariat on Wednesday.

Mr Akilan, who joined MOF in June 2022, was previously working in the reserves and investment directorate. No conflict of interest occurred in his previous work at that directorate, said the statement.

He is now working on education and manpower policies in the social programmes directorate in MOF.

“There is no conflict of interest between Akilan’s current job and his father’s candidacy for presidency,” said the statement.

“The decision was made in July to rotate him and pre-empt any possible potential for conflict of interest situations in the presidential election.”

Speaking to the media on Wednesday shortly after the statement was released, Mr Tharman said the statement is to be taken “at face value” and “there’s nothing for me to answer”.

He was asked about his thoughts on the statement, as well as online suggestions that Mr Akilan’s job description was changed hastily on Wednesday after it received public attention.

“These are stray bullets. Are you suggesting that MOF and the PSC were inventing facts? Can’t be, right? So I think it speaks for itself. If you have further questions, please ask MOF and PSC, not myself. I think it’s a very serious matter if you’re going to invent facts,” he replied.

When asked if he had declared his relationship with his son to the Elections Department, Mr Tharman said: “For what purpose? How about my daughter and my mother and my sister or anyone like that?

“There has to be some conflict of interest. So if there’s no conflict of interest, it’s a simple matter. This is an utterly straightforward issue... that’s all there is to it. It is a non-story. A complete non-story, that’s all.”

A Team Tharman spokesman later added that the multiple rumours circulating on forums and social media regarding Mr Tharman’s children were “false and baseless”.

He added that none of Mr Tharman’s children are in business, let alone having received government support for it. They also went to local schools and not the Singapore American School as claimed.

“We have always called for a contest based on facts and track records of the candidates. Such rumours are unfortunate and bring disrepute to the process,” he said.

The statement, and Mr Tharman and his team’s response on Wednesday, came after several social media posts made on Wednesday included screenshots from the Singapore Government Directory’s website of Mr Akilan’s previous posting in the reserves and investment directorate, and said that he was the son of Mr Tharman.

Some of the posts had also said Mr Akilan was granted a disruption from full-time national service (NS), and questioned the reasons for it.

In the statement, MOF and the PSC Secretariat said that Mr Akilan was treated like all other Overseas Merit Scholarship holders, according to prevailing policies.

“Akilan disrupted from his NS in 2011, resumed his NS duties in 2015 and finished his NS obligations, like his other PSC scholarship peers who had disrupted,” they said.

Mr Tharman, 66, is among three presidential candidates in the race to be Singapore’s ninth president.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.