By: Forever Vagabond
It was reported that Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) had apologised in their Facebook for placing an erroneous advertisement for the job of “Kenneth Yeo Wee” on job portals (https://theindependent.sg.sg/ida-has-apologised-unreservedly-to-kenneth-yeo-wee-for-placing-him-as-job-title).
The title of the job advertisement read, “Replacement for Kenneth Yeo Wee”.
IDA said that one of its human resource team member “who was new to the recruitment publishing tool and accidentally published the employee’s name instead of the job title.” It said that it was trying to recruit a new person for the advertised job which is being vacated by one of its employees.
IDA admitted that it was a mistake and said that it had “apologised unreservedly to the employee concerned for this error, and we regret any unhappiness caused.” It said that the HR officer who placed the ads has also been counseled. It added that it was reviewing its procedures to ensure that mistakes like that does not happen again.
Netizens not amused
The incident caused an avalanche of comments on social media, criticising IDA:
“Whether the person is new or what..most importantly…why no double check on what is supposed to be posted? Moroever, its over 3 job portals. This person lack of common sense and had no interest in his/her work. Lucky he/she’s in the jiak liao bee civil service.”
“This is how incompetence is like in the civil service. If the staff s new, is there no-one helping (a supervisor or buddy or team member) with the checks and balances? The civil service has a very omnipresent culture: tardiness.”
“It is nornal standard that an ad be it a product or a recruitment ad usually goes through more than one hand for vetting and APPROVED by the higher level before release. In this case, it is not the small print but a big heading. I doubt it is an oversight or blaming a new staff. This simply is a case of indifferent attitude and incompetency by the department.”
“I laughed until betahan…is someone in IDA HR has a fake degree?”
“IDA is already a “well known” agency. A lousy mgt team employing a degree mill employee surely produce lousy quality work. Surprise? Wasting my taxes. Don’t waste my time.”
“HR person should be sack.”
“Didn’t her superior check her work esp since she’s new?”
It’s not known what kind of people did IDA employ for its HR department. Nor do we know their qualifications.
However, it has been revealed that one of the HR officers hired by IDA was an Indian national who graduated from the University of Calcutta with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science (https://theindependent.sg.sg/why-cant-ida-hire-singaporeans-for-its-hr-jobs). The University of Calcutta has been ranked in the 601st-650th bracket by QS (www.topuniversities.com).
1