November 10, 2017, 12:15 PM 
Breaching the Official Secrets Act (OSA) is a serious offence, as an HDB officer found out today.
He is facing a fine not exceeding $2,000, and imprisonment of a term not exceeding two years, if convicted for the offence of wrongfully communicating confidential information under the relevant section.
Here's a rundown of the case:
Who is involved
- Ng Han Yuan, 25, an estate manager from the resale operations section of the HDB
- Janice Tai, a Straits Times reporter
What happened
HDB reported a suspected leak of confidential information to the police on July 27 after it received queries from the ST reporter on an upcoming new initiative, the HDB Resale Portal.
The police said:
"The queries had contained information on the initiative which had not been made public at that point in time."
The ST reporter, identified as Janice Tai, had received information from Ng relating to a project titled "Streamlining of Resale Transactions" in May 2017.
After this she approached several parties, asking questions related to the confidential information that Ng had told her.
What's next
Ng told the court that he intends to plead guilty and will not be hiring a lawyer. He is scheduled to appear in court again on Dec. 15.
Top image from Google Map.
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