Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he instructed Transport Minister S. Iswaran to go on leave as the city’s anti-graft agency started a probe.

The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau uncovered a case and asked to open a formal investigation that would involve interviewing Iswaran and others, Lee said in a statement on Wednesday, without specifying the reasoning for the investigation or the target.

Senior Minister of State Chee Hong Tat will be acting minister for Transport, according to Lee.

Singapore pays its top officials among the world’s highest public salaries and prides itself on its image for low corruption.

Last month, a government review into colonial bungalows rented by two cabinet ministers found no evidence of corruption or criminal wrongdoing after the opposition questioned whether the officials were paying less than market rates for the properties.

--With assistance from Nurin Sofia.

(Adds details of separate review in fourth paragraph.)

Author: Aradhana Aravindan and Philip J. Heijmans