Stronger deterrence needed to deal with bogus claims on public grants
THE amount in the scam was an eye-popping amount - nearly S$40 million, to be exact. That was how much a criminal syndicate was alleged to have cheated the SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) statutory board, having made bogus SkillsFuture Credit claims that went undetected for months.
It's easily the largest known case of defrauding a public institution to date, and it's mind-boggling how the perpetrators managed to pull off such an elaborate ruse with seemingly relative ease.
After all, the maximum amount of SkillsFuture Credit that a single person can claim to offset the cost of his or her training courses is S$500, which means that the syndicate - which used a network of nine business entities to make the fraudulent claims - would have submitted the names of some 80,000 individuals in order to make off with S$40 million.
BT is now on Telegram!
For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes
Columns
‘Competition for talent’ a poor excuse to keep key executives’ pay under wraps
OCBC should put its properties into a Reit and distribute the trust’s units to shareholders
Why a stronger US dollar is dangerous
An overstimulated US economy is asking for trouble
Too many property agents? Cap commissions on home sales
Time to study broadening of private market access