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Tag: PRC

  • Man Left CPF Savings To Female Friend From PRC Instead Of His Family

    Man Left CPF Savings To Female Friend From PRC Instead Of His Family

    INSTEAD of leaving his Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings to his family, a man left it to a 25-year-old female friend from China, giving her $37,000.

    His wife found out only after the man – whom she was married to for 34 years – died, Lianhe Wanbao reported yesterday.

    The widow, who wanted to be known only as Mrs Saw, 61, tried to appeal to a court, pouring $30,000 of her savings into the effort. Not only did she lose the suit, but she now also has to pay $7,000 in court fees.

    “It was really not worth it,” lamented Mrs Saw.

    The couple have a son and two daughters, all of whom are married. But things took a turn for the worse after Mr Saw committed suicide in June last year. Mrs Saw said she had stopped him from doing so on two occasions.

    While clearing her late husband’s belongings, she was shocked to find out that Mr Saw had, in 2011, arranged to have all his CPF savings given to the female friend.

    Mr Saw also had a will, in which the Chinese national would get $150,000 from the sale of his home. A further $450,000 from the sale would be split between an old folks’ home, a temple, his brother, friends and go towards paying off his credit card and housing debts.

    The remaining sale proceeds were to go to his immediate family, but the home is expected to sell for only $600,000, so his family may not get anything.

    Mrs Saw said her husband changed his will in 2012 to redistribute funds initially set aside for his family.

    In tears, she told Wanbao: “I knew he liked to go out to drink and have fun, but I always thought he was just flirting around, and would still be focused on the family. But little did I know that he would make such a decision.”

    She added that she could not comprehend why her husband made such a move.

    To safeguard her own interests as his wife and with support from her children, Mrs Saw used her savings to hire a lawyer to appeal to the court.

    “After my husband’s business failed in 1986, he didn’t have a job. Since then, I’ve carried the burden of being the family’s breadwinner and brought up our children. How could he quietly leave his money to a stranger and none for me?” said Mrs Saw.

    The widow said that she had never met the Chinese national. The woman, whom her husband met at a bar in 2009, is from China’s Liaoning province and works as a service staff member at Marina Bay Sands, she said.

    During mediation, Mrs Saw said that the woman reiterated that she and Mr Saw were just friends and did not have an intimate relationship.

    Mrs Saw said that in her husband’s beneficiary nomination form for his CPF savings, his relationship with the woman from China is listed as “goddaughter”.

    She raised doubts over this as Mr Saw initially wrote that the woman was his “granddaughter”, before changing it to “goddaughter”. “One can imagine that when he was making the arrangements, he was not thinking clearly,” claimed Mrs Saw.

    But the court decided that Mr Saw and the Chinese national had maintained a good relationship – regardless of whether the woman was his “goddaughter” or mistress.

    As there was insufficient evidence to determine Mr Saw’s state of mind when nominating the Chinese national as his beneficiary, the judge did not rule in Mrs Saw’s favour.

     

    Source:http://mypaper.sg

  • If You Aren’t Chinese You Can’t Compete In Singapore

    If You Aren’t Chinese You Can’t Compete In Singapore

    NOVEMBER 30 — The owner of the famous local briyani restaurant Blue Diamond, Abdul Hameed Mohamed Farook, is being prosecuted for hiring workers on an S pass (a visa category that requires a salary of S$2,200 or RM5,708 a month) but paying them far less.

    This might appear quite patently dishonest and illegal, and I’m all for paying workers a fair wage, but it seems to me he had little choice.

    His business is an Indian restaurant and to run an Indian restaurant you need Indian workers, or in a pinch maybe Pakistani or Bangladeshi workers.

    However, Singapore doesn’t in fact allow you to hire Indian or any South Asian workers as restaurant staff. In fact, they can’t be given work permits for any jobs in the service sector which includes Retail, Restaurants, and Beauty among others.

    The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) which regulates labour on the island has decreed that work permits in the service sector must only be granted to workers from North Asian sources; the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Macau and an exception is made for Malaysia. (http://www.mom.gov.sg/foreign-manpower/passes-visas/work-permit-fw/before-you-apply/Pages/service-sector.aspx)

    Now, Singapore is reliant on foreign labour. Any large scale business must hire foreigners — to stack shelves, to staff kitchens, to man pliers and tweezers.

    But according to the MOM these foreigners can only come from one country — the People’s Republic (and to some extent Malaysia). Because no one is really going to be importing shelf stackers and pot stirrers from Hong Kong or South Korea.

    This puts any non-Chinese business at a disadvantage as PRC workers tend to speak only Chinese and it is never easy to manage staff you can’t communicate with. It puts these community facing businesses at a particular disadvantage; perhaps an Indian-run shop can make do with PRC shelf stackers, but a Malayalee restaurant or saree store is unlikely to be able to manage.

    Now you can say this is all to protect some sort of ethnic balance because there are so many Indian and Bangladeshi workers in construction that having service sector workers from China balances things out.

    But firstly isn’t maintaining a “correct” race balance in itself a dubious exercise? And even if we accept this need for racial quotas, exceptions must be made for community facing businesses.

    The local Indian community is simply too small and the Malaysian Indian community hardly large enough to provide the labour for local Indian restaurants, beauty parlours, flower shops and the like. And the fact that Chinese shops, hairdressers and restaurants have access to effectively unlimited cheap labour gives them an innate advantage.

    The situation is patently unfair as it privileges one race over the other.

    What does this policy say to us? That Filipinos can be maids but not servers? Indians are good for being construction coolies but we don’t want to see them as hotel staff? This is why you see Mandarin-speaking servers struggling to pronounce Palak Paneer across the curry houses of Singapore.

    It’s destroying Singaporean businesses: Indians, Malays and Eurasians have been put in a position where they can’t compete on equal terms. The incentive to break and bend the rules in order to hire staff you can communicate with is very high and Blue Diamond is very unlikely to be the only offender.

    For simply wanting to hire staff who speaks their language, a whole community is liable to be criminalised and if you ask me, that’s racist.

    *These are the opinions of the columnist, Surekha A Yadav.

     

    Source: http://www.themalaymailonline.com

  • PRC Woman Allows Child To Shit In Public

    PRC Woman Allows Child To Shit In Public

    Dear editors,

    I saw this woman allowing her child to do his business out in the open at a grass patch between Block 521 and 522 of Bedok North yesterday (Nov 14).

    It is inappropriate to do so, especially since coffee shops and a McDonald’s outlet are just opposite this area.

    People are constantly walking past this area and I personally feel it is inappropriate as toilets are available just opposite the road in various kopitiams and even a McDonald’s outlet. These shops were roughly only two minutes away.

    She should be more considerate to others and use the toilets nearby instead.

    Hans

    Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

  • Ng Eng Hen Justifies $25,900 English Language Course for PLA Officer

    Ng Eng Hen Justifies $25,900 English Language Course for PLA Officer

    SINGAPORE: Officers from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) participate in exchanges with other militaries for staff college courses.

    The staff college courses attended are useful to establish good relationships with the militaries of other countries, and understand their perspectives, said Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen on Wednesday (Nov 5). When incidents occur, they can also be very useful resource persons on the ground.

    “So for these reasons, militaries all over have for many years exchanged officers to each other’s courses to establish better ties,” he said.

    Dr Ng said this in response to a question from Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Lina Chiam. Mrs Chiam had asked about a tender that had been called to provide an English Language course for an officer from China’s People’s Liberation Army.

    Dr Ng noted that the language of instruction can pose a problem for officers who attend courses run by other militaries, and language proficiency is important if the officers are to benefit from the course.

    “For some foreign officers who attend SAF’s military courses, we have to help them gain language proficiency so that they can benefit from their time here,” he said, adding that Singapore’s military officers spend time gaining language proficiency when they go to other countries for the same purpose.

    Dr Ng said that one officer from the People’s Liberation Army required a personalised 360-hour English Language course. The Defence Ministry had put out a tender on the Government’s e-procurement portal, and awarded the contract to the lowest offer that met the requirements. This came to S$25,900, which amounted to about S$70 per hour.

    Dr Ng emphasised that this was in strict compliance with the Government’s regulations.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

  • MOM Not Doing Enough to Police Credentials of Foreigners Seeking to Work In Singapore?

    MOM Not Doing Enough to Police Credentials of Foreigners Seeking to Work In Singapore?

    Yesterday (4 Nov), NCMP Gerald Giam from WP posed a question in Parliament about Govt’s plan to check on the credentials of foreigners coming to work in Singapore, in light of recent cases of FTs using fake degrees to obtain Employment Pass (EP) to work in Singapore.

    Specifically, Mr Giam asked:

    To ask the Minister for Manpower what are the Government’s plans to facilitate credential checks on foreigners coming to work in Singapore in light of cases of foreigners on employment passes who are revealed to have used false credentials.

    Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin replied that the EP eligibility framework is based on a range of factors, such as the applicant’s:

    • salary level
    • qualifications
    • experience

    This is to help identify individuals that are likely to possess expertise and capabilities to contribute to the Singapore economy, Mr Tan said.

    “Hence, possessing acceptable qualifications alone does not guarantee that the EP application will be approved. Conversely, not possessing acceptable qualifications does not automatically rule one out of being eligible for an EP,” he added.

    Mr Tan said that in 2012, MOM tightened the legislation and increased penalties for making false statements or submitting false documents in support of work pass application, including those relating to academic qualifications. Offenders may be fined up to $20,000 and/or imprisoned up to two years.

    “Since 2012 to the first half of 2014, we have successfully prosecuted about 150 foreigners for false credentials. All were sentenced to imprisonment terms and subsequently had their work passes revoked and were barred from working in Singapore,” he said.

    Mr Tan also revealed that MOM has taken a risk-based approach to improve and strengthen the credential checks, including:

    • supplementing checks with third-party overseas screening agencies
    • verifying the authenticity of certificates directly with the issuing educational institution
    • requiring the applicant to upload proof of diplomas and higher qualifications authentication

    “MOM will take strong actions against those who make false declarations in work pass applications. If members of the public know of such offences, they should report the matter to MOM,” Mr Tan added.

    Yang Yin’s EP approved in 2009

    One of the high profile cases featured in the media recently was Yang Yin, a former PRC tour guide who eventually became a PR and grassroots member in Singapore.

    The Chinese media earlier reported that Yang had allegedly obtained money from 82-year-old widow Mdm Chung Khin Chun to procure a fake degree in China (‘Yang alleged to have bought fake degree for S$4,000‘).

    An acceptance letter supposedly from the “University of Financial and Trade Beijing China” (北京财经贸易学院) showing that Yang was apparently “accepted” by the university to study for a bachelor’s degree in 2006, was produced:

    He was said to have graduated later in July 2009 (‘PRC Yang “graduated” from unknown university in 2009‘).

    The Chinese media also reported that the said university cannot be found in the official university listing from China’s Ministry of Education.

    TRE also searched the Internet using the university’s name (北京财经贸易学院) and found many interesting entries. One of them was a question posted on a Chinese forum in November 2012, asking if it is too expensive to buy a degree from the said university for CNY8,000 (S$1,600) [Link]. Other postings said the university does not exist [Link].

    And then, there was a news article published in July this year, exposing a list of 150 fake universities in China [Link]. 北京财经贸易学院 is listed as one of them:

    Yang set up a company in 2009 with Mdm Chung and obtained his EP to work and stay in Singapore. According to ACRA records [Link], the company, Young Music & Dance Studio, only has a paid-up capital of $10,000.

    To qualify for an EP in 2009, the foreign PMET had to be paid at least $3,000 in salary. At the time when Yang’s EP was approved, MOM was under the purview of Minister Gan Kim Yong.

    MOM said it’s investigating the matter.

    Meanwhile, Yang has been slapped with 11 charges (‘‘Foreign talent’ Yang Yin slapped with 11 charges‘) on 31 Oct. He was accused of falsifying the accounts of Young Music & Dance StudioPte Ltd between 2009 and 2014 while being a director of the company.

    Court papers stated that Mr Yang had “wilfully” falsified receipts of payment to Young Music and Dance Studio, when there were no such payments. He was said to have created fictitious receipts reflecting payments for “painting” and “piano classes”. The payments range from $1,000 to $5,500. In other words, he is alleged to have created fictitious revenue for the company so as to pay his monthly salary “legally” in order to support his EP.

     

    Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com