Workplace safety trainer forges and sells safety certificates to migrant workers without providing training

A workplace safety trainer has been sentenced to 10 months’ jail for forging certificates and safety passes for the Building Construction Supervisor Safety (BCSS) course – a safety training course that is mandatory for construction workers who are employed in supervisory roles at work sites.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) revealed yesterday that the trainer, Ramanathan Thamilselvan who worked with Work Safe Consultants, sold the forged documents to migrant workers without providing any training and assessments. The offences reportedly occurred between January and March 2016.

Thamilselvan’s sentencing follows the sentencing of two other directors from two different workplace safety and health training providers for similar offences in August and September 2017.

The directors – Sellachamy Somasundaran from Maha Safety Training Centre and Md Abu Zahin Mostafizur from Pioneer Skill Training Centre – forged certificates and safety passes for the same BCSS course between August and December 2015. Both directors were also sentenced to 10 months jail each.

MOM has since voided all the fraudulent BCSS certificates issued by the three officers and has also stripped the three of their statuses as accredited training providers. The Ministry added:

“Foreign workers who bought the fraudulent BCSS certificates were barred from performing supervisory roles. They will not be allowed to renew their work pass upon expiry and are banned from working in Singapore.

“MOM takes a very serious view of any breach to the Workplace Safety and Health Act as workplace safety and health issues directly affects workers’ lives, safety and health.

“Regular audits on the training providers are conducted to ensure full compliance and competency of the training providers.”