Why can't IDA hire Singaporeans for its HR jobs?

By: 永久浪客/Forever Vagabond
The Independent Singapore earlier published a news about Singaporeans taking back the management committee of Mandarin Gardens from Indian expats living in the condo (https://theindependent.sg.sg/singaporeans-take-back-mandarin-gardens-from-indian-expats).
A Singaporean living in Mandarin Gardens at East Coast had related the story. The writer wrote, “The Indians were taught a humbling lesson. The Singaporeans reclaimed (management committee of) Mandarin Gardens for Singapore.”
When the news was posted on Independent Singapore Facebook, a Facebook user by the name of Mohua Sarkar (https://www.facebook.com/mohua.sarkar.52) said, “Wow! You guys seriously need help! Get a life ppl! Elevate yourself to a level in education and communication that you dont have to reclaim anything from anyone.”
In other words, she is implying that Singaporeans are not educated or talented enough to run anything in their own country. That is to say, if Singaporeans are educated enough, they don’t need to “reclaim anything from anyone”, presumably from foreigners. Singaporeans would be able to stand on their own 2 feet.
She then went on to engage with Singaporeans on Facebook, telling some of them to go for grammar lessons and asking others to “shove it up”.
Facebook public profile removed
Understandably, many Singaporean Facebook users are enraged by her callous comments. As things turned out, Mohua Sarkar has now removed her Facebook public profile. Clicking on her Facebook link will result in:
“The link you followed may have expired, or the Page may only be visible to an audience that you aren’t in.”
However, her insulting comments have already been screen-captured and posted in the article (https://theindependent.sg.sg/ida-officer-insults-singaporeans-on-facebook).
Also, her earlier Facebook Check-In showed that she has been located at places like Mapletree Business City and IDA (IDA is located at Mapletree Business City in Pasir Panjang). The Facebook Check-In is a service which allows a user to share where the person is, by checking into the location through a smartphone.
Indeed, on LinkedIn.com, it was found that there was a Mohua Sarkar working for IDA from Jan 2013 to May 2015 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohua-sarkar-66222210).
IDA hires Indian FT for its HR job
According to the information on LinkedIn.com, Mohua Sarkar was working in IDA as Manager in the Human Capital Development/Strategic HR department. The followings are what she said she did at IDA:
• Project Manager for various Training & Talent Management programmes impacting close to 1.2 million ICT professionals in Singapore (from Entrant to Management Level)
• Strategize and execute learning and development initiatives that drive employee engagement, and build employees capabilities across all companies in Singapore.
• Develop and drive training programmes for leadership capability building
• Advise , lead and plan end-to-end training and development strategies that are closely integrated with both Business strategy and the Human Capital strategy to improve talent sourcing, optimum utilization, retention and organizational culture of Tech companies
• Liaise with major public and private Universities and work towards making their curriculum industry ready.
• Conduct and formulate ICT manpower and skill related strategic research and training need analysis
• Review and monitor National ICT Competency framework portal that articulates the key competency requirements of Infocomm professionals.
• Negotiate and lead external training consultants for design and development of training materials covering National ICT Competency standards
• Oversee training providers for mapping and endorsing of courses with national tech competency framework
• Manage and liaise with various government agencies (Workforce Development Agency, Spring , Media Development Authority) and industry associations (Singapore Computer Society, Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation)
• Administer and develop budget for training and competency building programmes and initiatives under Government Procurement Process.
• Formulate paper for Ministry for programme approval and budget allocation.
• Manage Public Communications for Senior Leadership in the agency and ministry.
She graduated from the University of Calcutta with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 2000. Prior to coming to Singapore in 2013, she was working for Wipro Technologies in Kolkata as a “Talent Optimization Manager -Training, Staffing & Operations”.
Incidentally, University of Calcutta is ranked in the 601st-650th bracket by QS (
www.topuniversities.com), whereas NUS is ranked 12th and NTU 13th in the world.
The question we should be asking IDA is, why can’t IDA hire a Singaporean for the above HR job done by Mohua Sarkar? Are there no Singaporeans able to do this job?