The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is “continuing to look into the case concerning Nisha Padmanabhan”, the employee who is accused of possessing a fake MBA degree from the Southern Pacific University, a known degree mill.
The statutory board under the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) said this on a Facebook post on 20 April.
The IDA’s latest statement comes amid growing unhappiness about its earlier defence of its hiring of the employee.
Indian-born Singapore citizen Nisha was hired by the IDA as an Applications Consultant in 2014.
Ms Nisha has been working in Singapore since 2006, and has a basic Bachelor’s degree “from a reputable university”, according to the IDA. It has since been reported that the university is the University of Mumbai in India.
The IDA had earlier said she was hired because of her “extensive past work experience and good track record”, besides her degree.
“Her MBA from Southern Pacific University was not a factor that contributed to her employment at IDA,” the stat board said in its previous statement. (See here.)
Some members of the public have questioned the IDA’s defence in hiring Ms Nisha, saying that her alleged fake MBA degree raises questions of integrity and propriety not only on her part but also on the part of the IDA in defending her employment at the stat board.
Mr Terence Nunis, for example, posted the following on the IDA’s Facebook page:
“When someone puts a qualification on her resume, as in this case, that was never earned, the intent is solely to lie, to deceive, to defraud. No one puts these things there for decoration. It is a question of a lack of integrity and moral ambiguity. That the IDA sees fit to defend such an action calls the judgment of their management into question as well.”
Read also: “IDA defends hiring of employee accused of possessing fake MBA”.
