7/18/2013

MOM charged 25 FTs for forging certificates


25 fake FTs, 21 from Myanmar, 3 from India and 1 from the Philippines have been charged for forging certificates to get employment passes and very likely all will be jailed as none will be able to pay the $5000 fine. The jail sentence is for 4 weeks while those unable to pay their fines will be jailed for 20 days. The difference in the days for the jail sentence could be due to the cases being different.

These FTs were caught after being employed for less than a year. They are new applicants. Many enraged Sinkies are calling for tougher measures as the sentences were just too insignificant for the risk and reward considerations. It is a good start for the MOM and people are expecting more to come as this is only skimming the surface of a problem of several hundred thousands of FTs here.

To mean business, MOM should go after the employers and the recruiting agencies as well. They have to go for the source of the problem and not the foreigners that are trying their luck. And worse, they are not going to pay the fine and the govt would still have to feed and house them for the duration in jail.

Go for the jugular, and employers and recruiting agencies that failed to do the due diligence or actually in cahoot with the job applicants should be severely punished. And the employers and recruiting agencies are likely to have the finances to pay up and would avoid repeating the act.

Hope this is not just a show and the reaches of the MOM should extend to all the existing EP holders under employed and eventually even to new citizens who have gotten away. It is a long and tedious process and it is best that MOM signals its intention and how far it will go to nab the culprits and the cheats. MOM must issued a stern warning to all employers and recruiting agencies. In that way it could be seen as giving them a chance to get out while they can and for employers to clean their own houses before the net closes in on them.

By placing the responsibilities on the back of the employers and recruiting agencies will shift the burden to them as well. MOM just does not have the manpower and resources to deal with the few hundred thousand FTs here. Leave it to the employers and recruiting agencies to do the vetting and checking. MOM should just take on one company at a time starting from the big ones to send the message across that it means business.

The citizens are demanding that the govt must act thoroughly and seriously on such violations of the employment law and cheating the deserving citizens of their right to employment. Also it will save the embarrassment of being seen as a silly govt that claimed to be intelligent and sophisticated first world talents but got cheated easily by third world half baked non talents and fraudsters.

The Sinkies are not daft and are watching carefully to see how real is the effort of the MOM. There are many fakes hiding deeply in the banks and financial institutions and some may be holding very senior positions for many years here. It is also good that MOM has asked the public to whistle blow, to feed back on suspected cases to their hotlines.

MOM said it will not condone such acts of false declaration, and will take severe actions against offenders.

Members of the public who have information of persons or employers who contravene the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act should report the matter to MOM at Tel: (65) 6438 5122 or email mom_fmmd@mom.gov.sg. All information will be kept strictly confidential.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Go for the jugular, and employers and recruiting agencies that failed to do the due diligence or actually in cahoot with the job applicants should be severely punished."
RB

Hahahahaha. But can the govt get better employers and recruiting agencies after that?

More seriously, if PAP is voted out, can Sinkies get a better party as govt when the strongest opposition party is not even ready?


Anonymous said...

It is difficult to solve lah, seriously.

Unless PAP don't need or need less FTs lah. This will be the real jugular. But then how to get 6.9 million population target?

Headache, tio bo?

Anonymous said...

Is MOM charging "the tip of the iceberg"?

If so, it is scary man.

Anonymous said...

Is this clampdown for show or for real? S'poreans have all along doubt the qualifications of these "FTs". PinoyLand is a thriving market for these degress and doctorates. This is a cruel joke on our education system if we take these "qualifications" for real.

Anonymous said...

Anon 8.33 and all you Singlish users out there. Tio Boh not bo. Please get your Singlish grammar right leh. Boo!

oldhorse42 said...

I think it is just for show to appease the daft sinkie. The guilty ones are the agents and the employers and not the foreign workers who may not even know that the agents fakes their qualifications. Go after the FTS in PMET jobs as these faked talents are stealing jobs from sinkies.

Anonymous said...

As a parent I feel so sad for all the parents and children of Sinkies. We are being raped everyday and the rapists are laughing at our idiocy.

Anonymous said...

Aiya even FT degree is real its also half past six type mah

agongkia said...

Employers may also be a victim so its unfair to punish them.
Sometimes back when we started using our new nric,an ii applied for a job with a new nric.How many would expect new id can be fake.The photo is his and nothing unusual was noted.After he was terminated for misbehaviour after a month ,he manage to work for another company and somehow got caught after some time.
Sometimes,its not easy for employer to detect even the applicant is to use another id,not to say forged.Certain r have very similar look and is not easily detected.

However employer who intentionally hire ii should be punish.Be reminded that most employers are Sinkies who are out for an honest living and they should not be wrongly punish because of these foreign cheats.

Anonymous said...

When a Sinkie submits his CV, you can bet 99.9% are genuine. No bluff one. When a foreigner submits his cv, 50% may have added things that are not supposed to be there.

And daft Sinkies will accept all in good faith. No question ask, no need to verify. They daftly believe that foreigners are as honest as daft Sinkies.

Virgo49 said...

Hi anon at 9.06am

My son just went for an interview last week for a IT position.

Asked him how?? Oh, I think the interview went well- he said.

Probed further- who interview him.

Answer: The Ang moh boss with his Pinoy manager.

I told him- forget about this job.

True enough- no wind no sound!

Today he asked me- but I thought it went well. I said it went well with the boss but not the manager.

The manager in formality went thru the motions of conducting all the ncessary interviews but in the end, the stupid ang moh boss would be manipulated by the Pinoy to employ his kind for the position.

No way they gonna employed a Chinese Singaporean to lord over them.

Too smart and hardworking but plain dont know how to curry and carry the balls.

Tell him stick to his present job if possible. In three months time at least twenty percent of them will bw RTS- roam the streets.

Anonymous said...

Hope he will not end up driving taxis or becomes a crane driver.

Anonymous said...

Singapore is fast becoming an exciting place to live ..........

ProSustainableSg said...

Continuation of Part 1/5 @ PSS 9.23 pm from RB 17 Jul 2013 Scrap University Educational post:

Constructive Suggestions For Sustainable Sg Part 2/5

Keynesian economics, developed in the 1930s predominantly in response to the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s, essentially targets demand deficiency in the AD or GDP of an economy during the down cycles of capitalist societies. Indirectly, it is an implicit and explicit recognition, acknowledgement and admission of the limitations, failings and inadequacies of modern capitalism as we know it. In short, it sees the need and calls for direct government interventions to correct the boom-bust cycles inherent in capitalist economies. This is where more could have been done. Depending on how one defines economic efficiency and social efficiency, in this instance, the 1930s world renowned British economist John Maynard Keynes specifically focused on the economic aspects of the shortcomings of the free market price mechanism based capitalist societies. Doing so however would not imply or rather deny the existence of the social aspects of the shortcomings of free market capitalism. This aspect is where my focus would be in respect to the effects of the shortcomings of capitalism impacting the social aspects of our society and our recognition as a society to tackle them directly and actively predominantly via government interventions to counter balance not just economic externalities but social externalities as well.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Hi Pro Sustainable Sg, thanks for your lecture on Keynesian economics.

Anonymous said...

MOM must quickly vet all the qualifications of FT medical doctors. This area can kill people.

The next big area is finance and banking. How many are laughing to the banks with fake certificates?

Virgo 49 said...

Not to worry bro, he is not over the hills yet like the middle aged sinkies.

Just want to have a change of environment.

Late twenties still in demand but not versed in the crafty world of foxes and wolves yet

ProSustainableSg said...

@ RB 11.31 am

To RedBean, our grandfatherly, learned, caring, altruistic and pro-Singaporeans pre-war generation Singapore citizen. I believe many readers here appreciate your hard work, day after day, punching furiously on the keyboards to air the social injustices and failings in our society and some, in your view, not so sound policies dish out to fellow Singaporeans by our globally highest paid scholars. To a certain extent, to call you our 21st century Singaporean " Lu Xun 鲁迅 " should be a reasonable recognition to your on line hard work and contribution. Nonetheless, I believe readers would also need and want you to stay strong and healthy so as to "piggy back" on you for many years to come to do the same work of making some contributions to our DEAR HOMELAND SINGAPORE. To have so many citizens on line blogging day and night 24/7/365 presumably to make this HOMELAND a great and sustainable place for all SINGAPOREANS is itself probably an achievement beyond the wildest hope of our 1st generation leaders in their earlier days goal of instilling a sense of belonging, national identity and nationhood in all post-independence Singapore citizens.

Next, the objective of the "subject of my comment --- Constructive Suggestions for a Sustainable Sg" is not intended to "lecture" or talk about any lavish non-practical economics theory or concept. Rather, the objective is to highlight, via such learnings, issues facing our HOMELAND that may have escaped the radar, attention, focus, policy objectives or even interests of our highly educated and even more highly paid scholarly Super Talents in our "world class system". Such heavy lifting if we can call them as such, technically should be done by all the drivers and co-drivers in our system who are very well renumerated or at least fairly lavishly rewarded.

Nevertheless, I believe that even if "we are not being lowered into the grave", especially so we should and could contribute one way or another, however small, to the well being and long term sustainability of our HOMELAND SINGAPORE. Pls be patient. My notes, drafts and workings on the subject matter are done in between my work and providing care to my few kids. I am summarising the gist whenever I could find time to and putting them together in the most straight forward, easy to understand and practical manner as best I could. In Parts 3/5, 4/5 and 5/5, I shall have some interesting observations, suggestions and evaluations on the subject matter for further brainstorms, debates and discussions.

By PSS

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Hi PSS, my honest face is turning red. Pai seh. Oh, I am from the post war generation lah, the babyboomers.

It is very important that all Sinkies must take politics and the affairs of our country very seriously. We should not allow the drivers to drive us anywhere they want. We cannot depend on a few co drivers to influence the drivers to make the necessary turns or to change gears.

Every Sinkie must be an interested party in where we want to go. We have seen how treacherous the road ahead is and where we are heading now.

The future is in the hands of all Sinkies. Please, don't allow it to sink.

ProSustainableSg said...

@ RB 1.52 pm

Ha ha, apologies for the wrong categorisation of your dob. Oops, very fortunately your are a male. Otherwise, I might have gotten a "few on line black eyes" from you. :) Ha ha

Anyway, I tend to agree with you that the road ahead won't be easy for any country or state or nation, whatever name we choose to define or call it. For a tiny red dot of 715 sq km, the margin of error for any faltering is certainly not a lot.

Just like what you said two days ago about my suggestion on segregating the coe quota into citizen, PR and foreign talent groupings, there are many ways to skin the cat. Issues like high coe, car and housing prices, pathetically low and ever declining birth rate among citizens, ever declining real income for many fresh graduates etc etc, all these "cats have been skinned" in so many ways and for so long yet from what we can infer, the "butchers" seem to be panting and perspiring profusely and problems such as the low TFR may remain an unresolved mysterious terminal illness as far as the "butchers" are concerned with " no cure in sight ". I would choose to believe that getting the cats skinned is not beyond us if we put our minds to the various problems and challenges facing our society. Even if we are doing so not as drivers or co-drivers but as fare-paying passengers ( citizens ).

agongkia said...

Just buy kopi c siew tai for the 21st century Teochew Lu Xin here by clicking on the ad.He will write more.

Anonymous said...

That I agree with RB. As citizen, we must prevent our country from over taken by FTs. We cannot allow Singaporeans to be second class citizens. If the government does not care about us, we will need to find another one. Sitting quietly and no action will allow the country to sink quickly. Get up all Sinkies. Take control over your destiny. God help those who help themselves. Period.

Anonymous said...

Wish that Minister Heng Swee Kiat, better if the Prime Minister and his whole cabinet are reading My Singapore News. Now that PSS is here with ideas to sustain Sin, all the more they should be here.
Another more effective alternative is for the Government to invite PSS for a comprehensive look into his/her ideas and implement them if they are indeed feasible and effective. That will do a lot of for Singapore and Singaporeans.
Will our Government make an invitation to PSS?

b said...

Prince lee said foreigners created jobs, opportunities etc... he forgets to mention fraud, dishonesty, fake certs etc

I think it is a good suggestion from RB to fine and punish those companies that hired them. They are the ones with monies. Why must taxpayers foot the bill to house them in prison? Even toilet cleaners have to pay tax aka gst.

Anonymous said...

'MOM must quickly vet all the qualifications of FT medical doctors'

- talking about being ready to be gov, they get a nut case to head the health ministry. How ready can they be anyway? But they are running this small island for 50 years already.

b said...

'Sinkies must take politics and the affairs of our country very seriously'

-maybe we should award RB as the father/founder of singapore politics awareness program.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Thanks agongkia for the kopi c. And for PSS and b and the anons, I hope you guys understand what buying kopi for me is all about. Maybe if perchance we met then I can buy you guys real kopi.

This discussion is serious and sincere enough for people not to think that we are just kpkb for complaining sake.

Thanks everyone.

PSS said...

@ anon 3.46 pm

I believe writing on RB's blog is just about right.

Anyway, our LTK Teochew Ah Hia who has been in it since the eighties also says he is not quite ready so how can possibly anyhow jump Q?

Anyway, I genuinely believe Singapore is a very delicate entity. There is no room for much error. Contributing ideas, suggestions, debates, discussions and occasionally reciting some Chinese poems and adages on line/ from the sideline is, in my most sincere and genuine view, the best I am able to. :)

Anyway, anon 3.46 pm, pls do not get "over-excited". Writing a few articles and suggesting a few ideas are far from being an able person, much less in the presence of all the proven stalwarts, veterans and talented individuals.

Contributing from the sideline is just about the right leverage. Nothing more than that. Destiny forbids. Anyway, I do not have any ability to do more than that. Thank you very much but no thanks for the sort of work anon 3.46 pm mentioned. There are more than sufficient and much more capable people up there to sort out the challenges. Having said that, well thought out comments and ideas would be more constructive than shouting all kinds of wishful and easier said than done remarks not dissimilar to those of ardent football fans watching their favourite team from the galleries or spectator stands. Agree?

Hope my comment goes down well with parties concerned. All that I could ever do well is contributing constructive ideas etc for the continued well-being of our HOMELAND. Sincerely no thank you for anything more.

Cheers :)

Anonymous said...

RB, but I am surprised by your blind faith with the PRC government. do u really think they are better than the elites controlling the west?

Anonymous said...

'I genuinely believe Singapore is a very delicate entity. There is no room for much error.'

- you are brainwashed very seriously. do u really think the current ruling party did not make any big mistakes?

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Anon 9:26. I am equally surprised that you are still thinking like an Asian brainwashed by the west.

Read up the history of China before it became communist and the poverty and tragedies across the country. Look at what is China today and the life it is giving to its more than 1 billion people.

And like every western thinking stud, they are hoping and praying everyday for China's economy to collapse but instead it is growing stronger by the day and it is holding more than 1 trillion dollar of US T Bills. It is the banker of the Americans. It is the number one trading partners of many countries around the world.

On the other hand the western economy and financial system are already collapsing all over. You should be asking yourself why you are still having so much faith in the west?

They were very great, very powerful and rich. But it is end game and nearly game over.

Anonymous said...

Our government is

There are two sectors need attention.

On financial sector, we are too reliable on west or western educated consultants. Locals should equal to the task with enough exposure.

On aerospace sector, we should not open easily to any third world countries pilot.
This is not discriminate them, but it take more than decade of experience for them to reach our quality standard.
It is also Singapore's first impression to any visitors.