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Oral Answer by Mrs Josephine Teo Minister for Manpower to PQ on erroneous SIRS declarations

Employment practices

NOTICE PAPER NO. 161 OF 2020 FOR THE SITTING ON OR AFTER 5 JAN
QUESTION NO. 393 FOR ORAL ANSWER
MP: Mr Gan Thiam Poh

To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) whether there have been any suspected cases of fraudulent applications under the Self-Employed Relief Scheme (SIRS) and, if so, what follow-up actions have been taken; and (b) whether there are plans to audit the SIRS to ensure proper administration and governance.

NOTICE PAPER NO. 187 OF 2020 FOR THE SITTING ON OR AFTER 5 JAN
QUESTION NO. 463 FOR ORAL ANSWER
MP: Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim

To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) in the past three months, what is the proportion of payouts under the Self-Employed Income Relief Scheme that has been subjected to clawback; and (b) what are the major reasons for the clawback.

Answer:

  1. MOM and NTUC take public feedback, including those from whistle-blowers seriously. We are aware that there were scams inviting individuals who were not the intended recipients of the Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) to apply. These cases have been surfaced to the Police for investigation.
  2. Government grants such as SIRS aim to provide assistance to Singaporeans who need help. For prudent stewardship of public monies and as with all other Government schemes, SIRS is subject to financial audit by an external auditor appointed by NTUC.
  3. MOM also conducts our own audit before and after the final payout tranche was disbursed. The audit of applications is still ongoing. For timely assistance to self-employed individuals, eligibility was assessed based on applicants’ declarations of their employment income and number of properties owned. Those whose declarations met the eligibility criteria received payouts. Subsequent audit affirmed the eligibility of most successful applicants. But we also uncovered some cases of erroneous declarations, constituting about 0.5% of all SIRS recipients.
  4. To be fair and consistent to all applicants, those with erroneous declarations have been approached to refund their SIRS payouts. Some have already done so, and we will reach out to the rest individually to give them time to do so.

[Note: In July 2020, the Police arrested four individuals for their involvement in a series of suspected fraudulent SIRS applications, with the alleged use of forged supporting documents. Investigations are still ongoing to determine the exact number of fraudulent claims. To view SPF’s Aug 2020 press release, click HERE.]