This kind of acquihire thing is common in the private sector and can often make sense. It's much more valuable to acquire people as a team rather than have to build up the team person by person over time.

You think when Google, Meta, etc acquires a company they will bother to make the staff leetcode and go through interview processes? These are nothing more than bureaucratic formalities.

Many public servants complain about their org's bureaucratic culture, but when somebody tries to do the right thing like in this instance, also complain....

I think you are right when you are referring to a team in private sector. However this is public service we are talking about. We are using tax payer money. Did we ask ourselves the right question when we hire a team? Was due diligence done? What about change management and sentiment?

We are under public scrutiny lei. U try MNC or SME hire a team,no one bats an eye

This is far from the right thing for 2 very simple reasons:

(1) expenditure of public monies. MOF controls the purse strings, not GovTech. We're not talking about Softbank throwing another $500m your way.
In public sector, vendor want to give you a gift already must declare to dunno how many levels up. Every cent is counted. What message does it send when there's a mass hire of people way above payscale with no immediately obvious use for them?

(2) the fact that they could walk right in when the thousands of other existing employees had to go through the rigid process, is highly inequitable and unfair.

So much like! Very well said

This entire Indeed saga should be brought up to the parliament debate. LOL

The news hit other statboards and ministries already. Unhappiness in places like MINDEF and other statboards have begun building up.

These places already struggling with attrition because every fresh grad wants to join tech. Get hit double whammy. Internal staff not happy + difficult to find new blood.

What is p increment

Can share how u know this? U from mindef? Got friends from different agencies?

It depends what grade u are.0 to 5% or more. Really no silver number here

(1) Don't tell me there aren't people in government orgs who have no real work even when hired through rigid and formal processes. Or for that matter, any organization private or public.

(2) The formal hiring process changes over time as well. Years ago Govtech had no coding tests. Now they do and standards are increasing. Must management make all existing staff go through the same tests and fire those who cannot pass? What if you fail? Interviews and hiring are always subjective. OGP breaking off and offering insane salaries how? Need to call in CPIB to investigate Li Hongyi?

Your arguments are harping on technicalities without looking at the big picture. Tech agencies in the public sector have repeatedly tried and failed to build up deep technical expertise over the years. They do need to try something different and tap on the people and expertise from the private sector to keep Singapore ahead.