A civil service with integrity strengthens the trust between Government and citizens, for Singapore and China alike, said Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean on Tuesday.

He was speaking at the fourth Singapore-China Forum on Leadership at the Shangri-La Hotel, where senior officials and public servants from both countries will discuss leadership development issues.

Mr Zhao Leji, the Communist Party of China's personnel chief, leads this year's 24-member delegation from China.

Both leaders spoke about the importance of integrity in their respective countries' civil services.

Mr Teo, the Minister-in-Charge of Singapore's civil service, said that this includes the integrity of individual officers and institutional processes, as well as that of society.

For example, there are strict financial controls in place which are regularly reviewed, and several ways for public officers to report wrongdoing.

"On the whole we have done well," said Mr Teo, adding that "where processes have been inadequate, we have tightened them". Individuals who have done wrong have also been dealt with firmly but fairly through legal or disciplinary actions.

Mr Zhao said that organisations should be good at detecting officials' moral character and could do so through several means, such as listening to the opinions of their superiors, subordinates and the people they serve.