SINGAPORE — Speaking at an event organised by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) at Orchard Hotel on Monday (5 Dec), Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport Chee Hong Tat said Singapore needs to remain open to foreign talent to ensure the economy continues to grow over the longer term and there is more for everyone to share.
“On balance, it is still better for our people if we adopt an open approach, because we are then able to enlarge our economic pie and there is more for everyone to share,” he said.
“If we close our doors to the world, we will end up shooting ourselves in the foot because the world will just move on, bypass us and use any of the competing hubs. We will then not have the resources to support future generations of Singaporeans.”
But Mr Chee did promise that the government will ensure that local workers are treated fairly at the workplace as well as keep investing in their lifelong learning and skills. He said that equipping Singaporeans with skills, the “more ready we will be to welcome a complementary foreign workforce and also to integrate new immigrants into our society”.
Foreigners With Fake Degrees Considered “Talent”
Meanwhile, many Singaporeans are questioning the government’s definition of “foreign talent” as the Manpower Ministry (MOM) has a history of issuing work passes to foreigners with dubious or fake degrees.
Last year (2021), two Indian nationals were jailed, and 19 others were permanently barred from future employment in Singapore for using fake degrees to apply for work passes. All of them had declared qualifications from Manav Bharti University (MBU) in their work pass applications.
MOM only started to investigate the foreigners when news emerged that the Indian government was investigating MBU for selling fake degrees and TOC highlighted that there were MBU graduates working in Singapore after searching through the professional social media site LinkedIn.
In its defence, MOM said that MBU was accredited by the Indian government.
Then there was the famous case of Mikhy Farrera Brochez, who leaked the personal details of 14,200 people on the HIV registry in 2019. Brochez, who was HIV-positive, came to Singapore in 2008 to work as a child psychologist. He fooled Temasek Polytechnic, the government and the local media for nearly a decade using forged educational certificates and fake claims. In 2013, he even managed to get a personalised employment pass (PEP), a pass that is of a higher tier than the employment pass (EP). Brochez’s forged certificates were only found out when he was investigated for possession of drugs by the police in 2016. The police later informed MOM.
And even if a foreign expat’s degree is genuine, the calibre of work may be subpar. In 2019, Dr Robert Arianto Tjandra from CPG Consultants was jailed for the collapse of an expressway viaduct near Upper Changi Road in 2017. One person died while 10 others were injured. Dr Tjandra, an Indonesian, was working for CPG Consultants when he approved the design for the bridge project and supervised construction works.
He pleaded guilty to authorising building works without approval. He also pleaded guilty to a reckless act which endangered the safety of others at work. Additionally, he knew his team were inexperienced in designing bridges, but failed to give them guidance or instructions. He also failed to check the design assumptions made. And even after he realised the errors in his team’s calculations, he failed to take remedial steps.
Commenting on the MBU incident, MOM shared that it had, over the past five years, detected and permanently barred an average of 660 foreigners per year from employment in Singapore for submitting fake education qualifications in their work pass applications.
Over the same period, an average of eight foreigners per year were prosecuted for such offences.
MOM said that employers have the primary responsibility to ensure the authenticity and quality of the academic qualifications of the candidates they wish to hire.
“While the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) conducts risk-based checks on qualifications submitted for work pass applications, it is difficult to detect institutions such as Manav Bharti University which are approved by the foreign government’s authorities and issuing genuine degrees while selling fakes,” a spokesperson said.
“Nevertheless, MOM regularly reviews and strengthens measures to maintain the integrity of our work pass framework. Firm action will be taken against individuals who attempt to circumvent the system.”
Despite efforts that MOM has been putting in over the years, all these incidents certainly do not give confidence to Singaporeans that the government is in control of assuring the quality of “foreign talent” working here.
