3 men and 2 women, believed to be members of a criminal syndicate, were charged in court this week after they scammed government training grants scheme, SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), of a whopping $40 million through fraudulent claims.
According to a press statement released on Tuesday, SkillsFuture revealed that the group had submitted forged documents to fraudulently obtain subsidies and that the suspects reportedly belong to “an organised network that utilised nine business entities, comprising employer companies and training providers, to submit the fraudulent claims. Close to $40 million has been paid out as a result. Police has seized substantial cash and frozen a number of bank accounts involved in the case.”
Former presidential candidate Tan Kin Lian has weighed in on the scam and has asserted that the case “shows clearly the deplorable state of our civil service and the political leadership.”
Calling the fleecing of such a large sum of money “astonishing,” Tan added that what has happened would not have happened during Lee Kuan Yew’s time and that Singapore is doomed under his son, Lee Hsien Loong’s leadership:
“In the old days, during the time of LKY, our civil servants would have been capable of preventing the kind of fraud that occurred with the Skills Future scheme.
“Frankly, it is not difficult to prevent the fraud. It only requires practical common sense to know how crooks could cheat the system.
“The fact that the fraud had occurred and to the scale of $40 million is astonishing. It shows clearly the deplorable state of our civil service and the political leadership.
“It also shows the failing of our education system which produce people that are smart in scoring in examinations but totally lack common sense.
“It is quite frightening to know that this is the calibre of people that are leading Singapore now.
“It also shows the serious shortcoming of an elitist system where the people in charge think that they are capable of finding the best solution on their own. They refuse to engage people outside of their closed elite circle.
“Singapore is doomed under Lee HL.”
In the old days, during the time of LKY, our civil servants would have been capable of preventing the kind of fraud that…
Posted by Tan Kin Lian on Wednesday, 20 December 2017
https://theindependent.sg.sg/group-of-3-men-and-2-women-scam-whopping-40-million-from-government-scheme-skillfuture/