A rare corruption scandal, it's Singapore.

Hello, and you're listening to the Marketplace Morning Report, live from the BBC World Service.

I'm Leanna Byrne, and a very good morning to you.

Singapore's transport minister

Esther Swarran has resigned. After facing multiple charges of corruption,

it's alleged she took kickbacks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,

something he denies. It's a rare corruption scandal in a city state that prides itself

on its squeaky clean government. The BBC's Mariko Oi is in Singapore and she's

on this story. Hi Mariko. Hi Viana happy new year. Happy new year to you too. So what are the charges against him?

He was given 27 charges including two for corruption and some of the details that we found out was that he got some

tickets to concerts and also to the Grand Prix of course he mr. Swarran and

property tycoon called on Ben-sen. They were arrested back in July,

but they worked very closely to bring the Grand Prix to Singapore back in 2008.

He Hans pleaded not guilty and denied all the charges but he has

still resigned as a minister as well as a lawmaker.

And what's next in that case? What comes next for him?

So he is set to stand trial, so we still don't know when that will be.

You know, this case has been really gripping this city state because as you know Singapore has a reputation for

clean governors so this is in a way the biggest political scandal to hit the

the nation in four decades yeah I think the last time there was a corruption case I read was

in 1986 so some might think corruption case not a big deal but in Singapore it is

right because normally has like a really squeaky clean government yes absolutely, absolutely, as you said, the last time was in 1986.

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