Ministry of Manpower widens probe into fraudulent quota inflation in construction firms
Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM) arrested four people last week for suspected employment offences tied to a so-called phantom worker scheme, the ministry said in a release. A further 21 people are assisting with the investigation.
The four arrested comprise two company directors and two company staff from the construction sector, according to a 2 September enforcement operation the MOM conducted against employment-related offences. Independent reporting confirmed the same details, with Yahoo News Singapore identifying the arrests as taking place over "phantom workers." AsiaOne reported the operation involved at least one construction company in Paya Lebar.
MOM said the two directors are suspected of making fraudulent Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions to locals who were not under their employment, so that foreign worker quotas looked larger than they were. The companies allegedly used the inflated quotas to bring in additional migrant workers, per the ministry's account.
The scheme exploits Singapore's dependency ratio ceiling, which caps the proportion of foreign work permit holders a company may employ relative to its local headcount. AsiaOne reported the construction and process sectors carry the highest ceiling, at 83.3%, while marine shipyard, manufacturing and services sectors are capped at 75%, 60% and 35%, respectively....
ng homes has hit out at false claims circulating online about the allocation of its Stonyhurst Street homes after a fire at one of the tenement buildings. Emergency services were called to the bla...