SINGAPORE: A 35-year-old freelance training facilitator was sentenced to seven months' jail for abusing the SkillsFuture credit scheme, SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) said in a media release on Tuesday (Jul 31).
Joel Yeo Junwei was one of four people from training provider Biz HR Solutionz Pte Ltd, who was charged in July last year for abusing the scheme, which aims to promote skills development by providing all Singaporeans aged 25 and above with credits worth S$500 to sign up for courses.
AdvertisementBiz HR was also one of three training providers suspended in 2016 from funding and grant assistance by the then-Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), following an audit that year.
Yeo faced 26 charges for falsifying course attendance records for Biz HR, SSG said in the media release. Yeo, who was hired in early 2016, signed off attendance records between February and Mar 29 that year even though he had not conducted the courses, SSG said.
He was instructed to do so by his employer, former Biz HR director Eric Zheng Zhenwei, SSG said. Yeo also helped Zheng to sign more attendance records for the audit conducted by WDA, which is now known as Workforce Singapore.
Zheng and two others, Tan Yu Sheng and Sim Chee Kiong, have been sentenced to jail for abusing the credit scheme, SSG said.
AdvertisementAdvertisementThe three of them had promoted Biz HR courses to their own contacts and offered a S$200 cash incentive in exchange for their credits, SSG added.
Zheng also instructed Tan and Sim to tell their contacts that they would receive cash even if they do not attend the course, SSG said.
Zheng was slapped with 150 charges for instigating trainees to cheat WDA into disbursing credits to Biz HR, for conspiring with Tan or Sim to instigate trainees to cheat WDA into disbursing credits to Biz HR for inflated claims, and for producing false course attendance records during the audit in 2016, SSG said.
Tan faced 22 charges while Sim faced 18 charges for conspiring with Zheng, SSG said.
Zheng was sentenced to 36 months' jail on Feb 27. Tan was jailed eight months while Sim was sentenced to six months' jail on Dec 19 last year, SSG said.
All four of them have made full restitution, SSG said. Zheng paid S$63,250, Tan paid S$5,400 and Sim paid S$5,330 to WDA while Yeo paid S$2,000 to the State.
"SSG takes a serious view of any individual, training provider or organisation that abuses its funding schemes, and will not hesitate to take action against those who contravene its funding rules and guidelines," SSG said. "This includes any individual who misleads another person in using their SFC."
Any individual found guilty of providing false information to SSG in relation to his or her application may be fined up to S$10,000 and/or jailed for up to 12 months.
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