Employee Rewards and Benefits News
First 'Kickback' Cases Under New Laws Before The Courts
SINGAPORE: In the first prosecution for ‘kickback’ offences since new laws were introduced in July 2008, three employers and an employment agent have appeared in court.
The employers were charged with receiving cash for ‘employment related’ costs and the agent faced charges of paying bribes to the employers to hire foreign workers.
The four cases involved 22 workers.
Under the kickback laws, the employers could face fines of up to S$5,000 and/or six month’s jail while the agent may be barred from recruiting foreign workers, have her licence revoked and forfeit a S$20,000 bond.
Ong Gim Chua, manager of Meeting Point Pub & Lounge faces ten charges for abetting the employer to recover levy and security deposit costs from ten foreign workers.
Ke Koon Seng, director of Seng System Engineering Pte, was charged for making salary deductions from his foreign worker as a consideration for employment.
Wong Seng Kiong of Guo Tai Mei Trading faces seven counts of recovering levy from foreign workers.
Sun Bao Hua of Starseas Consulting Services Pte faces four counts of abetting representatives of four bus companies to receive benefits by paying them to hire foreign workers through her agency
Aw Kum Cheong, Divisional Director, Foreign Manpower Management Division, MOM, said, "Kickbacks undermine the integrity of the employment agency industry, and distorts the market for foreign labour. Our foreign worker policies are intended to help companies to meet their legitimate need for foreign workers. Foreign workers should not be brought into Singapore in order to collect fees from them. Such exploitative behaviour will not be tolerated."
In a separate case, a coffee shop owner of Lor 11 Geylang was charged with bribing immigration officers
Investigations conducted by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) in November 2007 found that Chia Ngee Seng had given money to two Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers.
Both officers were attached to Woodlands Checkpoint during the time of the offences, spanning June to November 2007.
It was revealed that Chia had allegedly provided "U-Turn" services to female Chinese nationals entering Singapore via the Woodlands Checkpoint.
He sought the assistance of Mah Chin Phock to help by conducting less stringent checks on the Chinese nationals at the checkpoint. In return, the accused had on eight occasions given Mah cash and loans.
It was also revealed that the accused had on two occasions given gratifications in the form of 4D tickets to Matthew Goh Swee Hoc. In return, Goh was not to report the favour shown by Mah, his subordinate.
Goh was convicted in March and jailed for three months and fined S$240.
